From: Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ambiguities, doubling meanings and puns
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 09:35:38 +1200 (NZST)
Jack asked:-
>I am curious, did I understand someone to say that Hebrew
>words cannot have more than one meaning, hence pun and
>double entendres are not possible?
The claim, made by Karl, is that lexemes, not individual words, have
a single meaning. Compound lexemes have more than one word. Examples
given previously are ``strike out'' as in baseball, and ``strike up''
as in starting a conversation. Both are compound lexemes and have a
meaning different from strike and out or up on their own.
I was curious as to how Karl's theory handles puns and other word
play which generate double meanings. He doesn't think my question
was genuine saying it sounded like a ``straw man''. Also he did
not deal with the specific pun I put forward. So there's nothing
left to talk about and I'm none the wiser about how his theory
would handle a pun.
P.S. Thanks to Harold Holmyard for your helpful comments. I'll check
what those three authors say about Gen 30:3 and if there's anything
useful I'll post tomorrow. I thought you owned a copy of Alter's
translation and commentary so you should be able to see what he
thinks, if anything, before then.
Bill Rea, IT Services, University of Canterbury \_
E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz </ New
Phone 64-3-364-2331, Fax 64-3-364-2332 /) Zealand
Unix Systems Administrator (/'