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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum
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- From: John Leake <jesleake AT yahoo.co.uk>
- To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings
- Date: Tue, 7 May 2013 00:00:14 +0100
Karl, why do you keep repeating that multiple meanings to a word are uncommon. It doesn't become truer in the repetition. In fact, common verbs (nouns are more likely to have stable meanings) regularly exhibit polysemy, multiple meanings, in modern languages. In fact it's hard to think of common verbs that don't. Look at your monoglot English dictionary. How many common verbs have a single entry, a single lexical meaning in terms of their own language? Few. Now, if you were to say 'in a given context words generally have a single meaning' I might well agree with you. Words with contradictory meanings - the Biblical 'let', for example, or a word I used a lot when young, 'billion' (which could mean either 'million million' or 'milliard'), soon settle for one meaning or other in a given context (so 'without let or hinder' is as unambiguous as 'I let you eat' or, indeed, 'to let blood'). Similarly 'billion' now almost exclusively means 'milliard' and the latter word is forgotten. Incidentally the same goes for etymologically different words that coincide through phonological change (words like 'let', indeed). Now, there is still ambiguity even in context - in far more than 0.1% of the lexis - and we depend on it somewhat for irony, but once you take context into account your statement is much closer to the truth than the converse. However, this means that in our original example of Exodus 21:8, finding יעד in a context of marriage/concubinage does perhaps allow for the meaning that the LXX and the rabbinic sources seem to give it of something near to appointing (as a mistress)/betrothing, where another context might demand 'to arrange a meeting'/'to meet'. Of course, two other processes might be at play in our text: (1) change of idiom or the development of an idiom, changing the significance before the LXX appeared, or (2) legal reinterpretation by stretching the meaning of the verb in a context where the 'ipsissima verba' are fixed. That might well produce a legal 'term of art' that would go on to become a new contextualized use of יעד. John Leake ان صاحب حياة هانئة لا يدونها انما يحياها He who has a comfortable life doesn't write about it - he lives it ----------------------------------
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings
, (continued)
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
Jerry Shepherd, 05/04/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
K Randolph, 05/05/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
Jerry Shepherd, 05/06/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
K Randolph, 05/06/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
Michael Abernathy, 05/06/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, K Randolph, 05/06/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
Barry H., 05/06/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, David Kolinsky, 05/06/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, Barry H., 05/06/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, Isaac Fried, 05/06/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
Michael Abernathy, 05/06/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
John Leake, 05/06/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, John Leake, 05/06/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
K Randolph, 05/06/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, John Leake, 05/07/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, K Randolph, 05/08/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, John Leake, 05/07/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
Oun Kwon, 05/07/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, K Randolph, 05/08/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, John Leake, 05/08/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
K Randolph, 05/06/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, Jerry Shepherd, 05/07/2013
- Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings, Jerry Shepherd, 05/07/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
Jerry Shepherd, 05/06/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
K Randolph, 05/05/2013
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Re: [b-hebrew] Lexemes and meanings,
Jerry Shepherd, 05/04/2013
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