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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Y(D

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
  • To: Dave Washburn <davidlwashburn AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>, "Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Y(D
  • Date: Sat, 4 May 2013 14:34:36 -0700

Dave:

On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 1:13 PM, Dave Washburn <davidlwashburn AT gmail.com> wrote:
>A second point that I’ve noticed is that when one looks at a term that appears to have multiple meanings, when one looks at the underlying >action, what one finds is the same action applied to different contexts.

I'd be interested to see more development of this idea, because I've noticed just the opposite: words mean what they mean because a society chooses to use them that way. An English examples is "strike", which mean "hit" in bowling but "miss" in baseball. 

“Strike” is brought up repeatedly, as the exception that proves the rule. Even within baseball, the use includes a “hit”, an indication that here we’re talking about a very specialized use of the term. The same is true in bowling, a specialized type of “hit”. 

>A third point, one must differentiate between simple lexemes and complex lexemes. A complex lexeme is where two or more words are >combined to give a different meaning than what each single word has: e.g. “to fish out” has a different meaning than “to fish”.

I think you're describing an idiom with this example. I'm not sure there's a difference between an idiomatic usage and a "complex lexeme," but there it is.

A complex lexeme is where two terms used together make a meaning that is not included in either term used independently.

An idiom can be a complex lexeme, or often a single term, used in a way that often softens harsh reality, e.g. in Biblical Hebrew, )BD “to be(come) lost” used idiomatically to refer to death. A similar example from English in a conversation talking about a person’s death, the context indicates “He passed last Thursday” uses “passed” as a shortened use of the idiom “passed away” to refer to “died”.

These uses fit within the “few exceptions” I mentioned in my previous message.

Karl W. Randolph. 



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