Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Petr:

On Sun, Jun 16, 2013 at 12:39 PM, Petr Tomasek <tomasek AT etf.cuni.cz> wrote:

> >>

>
> So the evidence is that because the Ugaritic grammar has this pattern,
> therefore it must be found in Biblical Hebrew as well? Why should I buy
> that argument?

The argument is:
  a) semitic languages build causative stems either using the ha-/ʾa- prefix
or using a ša- prefix. (or variants thereof...)
  b) the infix -it- makes a reflexive stem variant in semitic languages

So a stem having a š- prefix and -it- infix is a regular causative
reflexive stem from the point of view of a comparative semitic grammar.

That argument falls flat because—just because a pattern is found in some languages, does not mean that that pattern will be found in each language of that language family. Just because that pattern is found in several Semitic languages doesn’t mean that it ever was found in Hebrew. 

The only problem is that for Hebrew š- prefix is not the primary
way of how causative stems are build. This poses however no problem
since one finds such rare stems in many other semitic languages.
See e.g. שׁזיב in Aramaic and so on.

See above. 

Petr Tomasek

Karl W. Randolph.