Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Hi,


> My own approach to generative grammar works at the clause level, where a
> clause is a
> single predicated statement (whether verbal or verbless in the  case of
> Hebrew).  I also use
> it to analyze at the phrase level: noun phrases, prepositional phrases etc.
>  To my mind,
> "sentence" is a fairly meaningless term, and so I avoid it when possible. I
> see the highest
> level as the verb phrase, which in my definition is more or less equivalent
> to a clause.  But
> it's useful for smaller segments as well.
>
>
I've reached similar conclusions. This is especially evident in a predicate
based approach. What we call sentences are generally a verb headed predicate
where the verb dictates the number of arguments e.g.:


1) give (giver, receiver, gift)     Mary (giver) gave John (receiver) a
spoon (gift)
2) get up (getter upper)          David (getter upper) got up

 I'm sure we will be able to spot similar patterns in Hebrew.

James Christian