> is there a comprehensive study of the infinitive absolute? form, syntax,
> distribution, semantics, etc, etc? if not, it ought to be done: it's not
> that big of a project.
Mark Smith gave a paper last month on the inf. abs. at a congress
in Beer Sheva. I assume it will appear in the proceedings when
they are published (E.J. Brill).
A doctoral dissertation on the subject is being prepared by Shigeo
Takeuchi, though I don't know when it will be finished, and it
will be written in Japanese (though I've heard that the Hebrew
tense-aspect system is very similar to the Japanese...). You
could e-mail him at: atake AT cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp