Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Chavoux:

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 2:10 PM, Chavoux Luyt <chavoux AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Shalom Karl
>
> …
>
> I think one must just be careful not to make it sound as if the
> meaning of most of the words in Biblical Hebrew is uncertain, since
> that is definitely not the case.


To use baseball terminology, our understanding of most terms are “in the
infield” if not  “on home plate”. Some are “in the outfield” and only a few
are “outside the ballpark”. I hope you understand the terminology.


> I also think that using the "shoresh"
> to determine the meaning of words is error-prone since in all
> languages words from the same roots can have a variety of meaning
> where the link between the "related" words can be very difficult to
> imagine.


There are many problems with looking for roots, including:
1) Sometimes two or more roots can derive to an identical form
2) The question of synonyms
3) Foreign loan words can have identical forms as native words
4) Compound terms, where specialized contexts in connection with other terms
can have unexpected meanings.

I refer to roots more often than do most modern lexicographers, but I
recognize that it would be so easy to abuse using roots where they are
inappropriate. That’s why I insist that there be commonality of meaning
before recognizing commonality of roots.

Where Isaac Fried’s system falls apart is that he insists that there is
commonality of roots where there is no commonality of meaning.


>
> Regards
> Chavoux Luyt
>

Karl W. Randolph.