Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

I hate to bring this up again but after so long a discussion we don't seem
to have reached any kind of grammatically plausible explanation of why the
article is consistently missing in the style of the creation account.
Is there anybody in favour of this being explained in the same way as the
absence in construct forms is explained? i.e. that phrases don't need
definite articles if there are other indicators which make the phrase
definite? If so, what are those indicators?

Could it be that implicit definiteness is what explains that lack of
definite articles in most languages? Native speakers of Slavonic languages
like Polish, Ukrainian and Russian - what difference do you perceive between
names and titles in your native languages? (NB there is no definite article
in Slavonic languages)

James Christian


2009/10/6 Joel C. Salomon <joelcsalomon AT gmail.com>

> James Christian wrote:
> > I think you are referring to ויהי איש אחד מן הרמתים צופים which is
> commonly
> > translates as 'And there was a certain man from Ramathaim-Zophim'. I'm
> > guessing that you are trying to point out that Ramathaim-Zophim is a
> proper
> > name and yet is used with a definite article?
>
> I have seen this explained (by Malbim, IIRC) that "the Ramathaim" were
> twin towns named Ramath.
>
> —Joel Salomon
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