To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] syntax question
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 13:41:45 -0400
Hi Liz,
Does this have the classical sound?
va'abaqqesh lah 'ish vehi' lo' haytah lo
Translated literally, "And I sought for her a man, but she became not his."
Shalom,
Bryan
----- Original Message -----
From: Liz Fried
To: Biblical Hebrew
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 9:41 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] syntax question
Dear All,
I've started to study modern Hebrew
(I"m going to be teaching at the Rothberg School in
Jerusalem this fall.)
In modern Hebrew to say "I wanted her to marry him,
but she didn't," you have to say "I wanted that she will
marry him, but she did not marry him."
How would you say this in BH? I can't think of an example.
Thanks.
Liz
Lisbeth S. Fried
Visiting Scholar
Department of Near Eastern Studies
University of Michigan
2068 Frieze Bldg.
108 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285
>Dear Peter,
>This is interesting. I'm reading now GKC 115e-g, and there there are
>sentences which have a subject of an infinitive in the nominative,
>but they have to be translated with a relative clause in English -- just the
>opposite of what I'm talking about, and very surprising to me.
>So JOb 34:22 lehisater $am poaley aven (that the workers of iniquity
>may hide themselves). Oh, but you could equally translate it, "for the
>workers
>of iniquity to hide." But this is not the same, because this clause is not
>the object of another verb.
>
>
GKC's terminology is old-fashioned, and they try to make a distinction
between "nominative" and "genitive" on the basis of whether or not there
is a construct chain. But the rule seems to be that a noun or personal
suffix following an infinitive construct is normally to be taken as the
subject of the verb, unless marked as an object with 'et.
Many different languages have similar constructions with different
details. In English we can say "I foresee him marrying her" or "I
foresee his marrying her", but "I want him to marry her". Greek always
uses two accusatives. For Arabic, see GKC's footnote on p.355.
Azerbaijani must use something like "his to marry her", where the
genitive is always the subject.
>
>
>>Surely the construction you are looking for is something like XPC +
>>infinitive construct + personal suffix. But I can only find one possible
>>example in the HB, Job 33:32. In such a case the personal suffix is
>>regularly subjective, see GKC 115c, so NIV's "I want you to be cleared"
>>is more likely than "I want to justify you".
>>
>>
>I dunno, I think it's a noun, no? I want your justification, or your
>aquittal.
>
Maybe. But the noun would be unique, or rather perhaps the Masoretes
have pointed it as a verb.
--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/