Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Dave:

Thanks.

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 7:22 PM, Dave Washburn 
<davidlwashburn AT gmail.com>wrote:

> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 7:17 PM, K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > James:
> >
> > On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 5:09 AM, James Spinti <jspinti AT eisenbrauns.com
> > >wrote:
> >
> > > All,
> > >
> > > Please be aware that the copy on Scribd is an unauthorized copy. If you
> > > use it, you are breaking copyright.
> > >
> >
> > Are you sure? You should send the information to the publisher to make
> > sure. Occasionally publishers release books for download, long before the
> > copyright normally would run out.
> >
> >
> Uh, James/Eisenbrauns *is* the publisher. So I suspect he'd know ;-)
>
> Thanks, I didn’t know.

> >
> > I do own it and have used it to some extent. My gripe is that it claimed
> to be based on modern linguistics, but if you read the introduction
> carefully, it doesn't use generative, lexical-functional, discourse, or any
> of the other modern linguistic approaches. It uses structuralism, which was
> passe 50 years ago. This is their definition of "modern." They're still
> back on descriptive linguistics and haven't graduated to explanatory
> linguistics yet. I found that baffling.
>

Wow, I must really be behind the times!   ;-)

My understanding is that descriptive linguistics is explanatory linguistics
in that one cannot describe without explaining. But I have no idea what
is generative, lexical-functional, discourse, or structuralism linguistics,
rather what I know is what I observe and describe to the best of my
ability, explaining the observations.

Much of my disagreements with other people on this list have been based on
them making models of what they think the language should be like, rather
than just following observation of what the language is like.

And oftentimes, observation is not clear, rather fuzzy, dealing with
concepts of which we are unfamiliar. In lexicography, we find terms that
have no equivalent in English, yet used so seldom that we cannot get a
clear picture in Biblical Hebrew. The syntax is not like anything I have
learned from classes or other languages that I have learned, other than it
still has verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and words that fit most the
other descriptions. The conjugations refer neither to tense nor aspect,
rather Biblical Hebrew relies on context to give that information. As
linguists, we need to be humble, recognizing our limits, rather than
boasting that we know it all.

>
> --
> Dave Washburn
>
> Check out my Internet show: http://www.irvingsplace.us
>
> Now available: a novel about King
> Josiah!<http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/89444>
>

Thanks again.

Karl W. Randolph.