From: "Eduard C Hanganu" <eddhanganu AT hotmail.com>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] Re: Compound Words in Hebrew
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 07:41:24 -0500
Hello to all!
Are there compound words in Hebrew? A friend with whom I have been
discussing this matter states:
"Concerning the "evening morning", I was inclined, as you say, to consider
this phrase as a unit, and somehow it is a unit, but not a compound word. In
Hebrew, compound words stand in a special connection called status
constructus (or s'michut), where the second noun has a free (absolute)
state, and the first one is bound (construct) to the second one, usually
modified and linked to the second by a makkef (kind of hyphen)."
"That the two are considered as separate nouns, is visible in v. 26, where
the reference back to them is in form of two definite nouns "haéreb
wehabbóqer", which is quite strange for our European languages, but in
Hebrew it is usual (e.g. Num 3:46: literally "the redemption of the three,
of the seventy and of the two hundreds", meaning: "the redemption of the 273
people"). So the unity of the evening and of the morning is not to be
understood as a compound word, but as a syntactical and rhetorical/poetical
form, an intentionally obscure phrase, fitted for the apocalyptic manner of
expression (as "a time, two times and half a time"; or "70 weeks"). It is
quite transparent that the expression is encoded. All apocalyptic is encoded
language. Especially when it comes to the length of time to the end, or the
identity of the most dangerous enemies of God."
My question is purely morphological, and please, allow me to repeat it:
does the lexicon of the Hebrew language include COMPOUND words? And if the
answer is affirmative, what is the Grammar that discusses this matter?