Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] HEBREW HOMONYMS (2)

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Ishinan" <ishinan AT comcast.net>
  • To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] HEBREW HOMONYMS (2)
  • Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 15:38:43 -0500

Ishinan:

Ibn Asher, Mūsā ibn Maymūn and all the other Hebrew scholars mentioned in the previous response are in complete agreement of the existence of "tagnis" or homonyms in Hebrew. Having recognized the homonymic conflict in Hebrew might have caused frequent misunderstandings of the scriptures, these scholars authored numerous treatises on this very topic. As G. R. Driver put it, "this misunderstanding was mainly attributed to the deficiencies of the Hebrew alphabet."

The crux of the matter is, so far, all the examples offered by Karl are simply homonyms. A simple comparative exercise of these terms with their cognates in sister Semitic languages with a more developed alphabet can put this matter to rest.

Hope that this helps.

Best regards

Ishinan B. Ishibashi


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Vadim Cherny : "

I agree, it is hard to argue with ben Moses ben Asher and Rambam ) However, the fact is that they understood homonyms differently from modern grammarians. Thus, for example, Rambam in Moreh Nevuhim treats "elohim" as a homonym denoting God, angels, rulers, or judges. We would, of course, find those meanings closely related. It seems that for Rambam any two meanings were homonyms, even if semantically related. In a sense, he spoke of theological rather than semantic homonyms. Still in other words, while we call *totally unrelated* meanings homonyms, Maimonides calls them homonyms if they are not *strictly equal* in theological terms. To that end, he introduced a concept of perfect and imperfect homonyms."


Previously Vadim Cherny also wrote:

"The thing is, Hebrew lacks homonyms. What you see as homonyms are actually related meanings. As Karl saw for himself, finding the common meaning requires some study but it is always there. This is a function of root cells. I take Steinberg's dictionary for a fine example of such search. "

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page