ON THE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF THE BIBLICAL HEBREW INFINITE ABSOLUTE

1. ON THE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF THE BIBLICAL HEBREW INFINITE ABSOLUTE Vincent DeCaen University of Toronto <decaen@decaen.ca>

3. Hebrew word order does make a difference. order does make a difference

4. Does Hebrew word order make a difference? QUESTION order does make a difference

5. Does Hebrew word order make a difference? does? order t make a difference

6. Does Hebrew word order make a difference! EXCLAMATION order does make a difference

7. Does Hebrew word order make a difference! does! order t make a difference

8. TOPIC spielten die Kinder vor der Schule im Park Fußball

9. die Kinder TOPIC spielten t vor der Schule im Park Fußball

10. vor der Schule TOPIC spielten die Kinder t im Park Fußball

11. im Park TOPIC spielten die Kinder vor der Schule t Fußball

12. Fußball TOPIC spielten die Kinder vor der Schule im Park t

13. Q: What did you do today?A: Went downtown, had lunch propro went downtown had lunch

14. kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāhēmmâ hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô for up-to-the-days the-those they-were sons-of-Israel burning-incense to-it for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it (2K 18:4) kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô

15. kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāhēmmâ hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô for up-to-the-days the-those they-were sons-of-Israel burning-incense to-it for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it (2K 18:4) kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô

16. kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāhēmmâ hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô for up-to-the-days the-those they-were sons-of-Israel burning-incense to-it for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it (2K 18:4) kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô

17. kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāhēmmâ hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô for up-to-the-days the-those they-were sons-of-Israel burning-incense to-it for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it (2K 18:4) kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô

18. kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāhēmmâ hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô for up-to-the-days the-those they-were sons-of-Israel burning-incense to-it for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it (2K 18:4) kî ˁad-hayyāmîm hāyû bənê-yiśrā’ēl məqaṭṭərîm lô

19. CP COMP TopP TOPIC TP TENSE AspP ASPECT VP bənê-yiśrā’ēl V′ V′ PP ˁad-hayyāmîm √qṭr lô hāhēmmâ

20. Claim: left-adjoined VP-adjunct AspP ASPECTVP ΛPVP DP V′

21. wayǝmaddǝdēm baḥébel haškēb ˀôtām ˀárṣâand-he-measured with-the-cord to-make-lie-down them on-groundand measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground (2Sam 8:2) ΛP PRO Λ′ Λ′ NP ˀárṣâ Λ PP haškēb ˀôtām

22. hēmmâ hōlǝkîm hālôk wǝdabbērthey walking to-walk and-to-talkAs they were walking along and talking ... (2Kings 2:11) CP C TopP DP Top′ hēmmâ TOPIC TP t T′ TENSE AspP ASPECT VP hōlǝkîm ΛP VP hālôk wǝdabbēr

23. hālōk ˀēlēk ˁimmākto-go I-will-go with-youI will surely go with thee (Judges 4:9) CP C TopP ΛP Top′ hālōk TOPIC TP ˀēlēk DP T′ pro t VP t VP … ˁimmāk

24. waybā́rek bārôk ˀetkemand-he-blessed to-bless youtherefore he blessed you still (Josh 24:10) &P & CP way C TopP yəbā́rek ΛP Top′ bārôk t TP DP T′ pro t VP t VP

25. wayyišṭǝḥû lāhem šāṭôaḥ sǝbîbôt hammaḥănehand-they-spread for-them to-spread ones-around the-campand they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp (Num 11:32) &P & CP way C TopP yišṭǝḥû PP Top′ lāhem t TP DP T′ pro t VP ΛP VP šāṭôaḥ

27. Bergsträsser, G. 1983. Introduction to the Semitic Languages. Trans. and sup. by P. T. Daniels. Winona Lake IN: Eisenbrauns. Bjorkman, Bronwyn. 2011. “BE-ing Default: The Morphosyntax of Auxiliaries.” Ph.D. diss., MIT. Callaham, Scott N. 2010. Modality and the Biblical Hebrew Infinitive Absolute. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, no. 71. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. DeCaen, Vincent. 1999. “A Unified Analysis of Verbal and Verbless Clauses within Government-Binding Theory.” Pp. 109-131 in The Verbless Clause in Biblical Hebrew: Linguistic Approaches, edited by Cynthia L. Miller. Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic, vol. 1. Winona Lake IN: Eisenbrauns. DeCaen, Vincent. 1995. “On the Placement and Interpretation of the Verb in Standard Biblical Hebrew Prose.” Ph.D. diss., Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Toronto. Englund, Donald L. 2006. “The Syntactic Structure of the Focused Adverbial Cognate Object in Biblical Hebrew”. MA diss., University of Kansas. Goldenberg, Gideon. 1971. “Tautological Infinitive”. Israel Oriental Studies 1: 36-85. Harbour, Daniel. 1999. “The Two Types of Predicate Clefts: Classical Hebrew and Beyond”. Pp. 159-175 in Papers on Morphology and Syntax: Cycle Two. Edited by Vivian I-Wen Lin, et al. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 34. Kim, Yoo-ki. 2009. The Function of the Tautological Infinitive in Classical Biblical Hebrew. Harvard Semitic Museum Publications. Winona Lake IN: Eisenbrauns. Pereltsvaig, Asya. 2002. “Cognate Objects in Modern and Biblical Hebrew”. Pp. 107-136 in Themes in Arabic and Hebrew Syntax. Edited by Jamal Ouhalla and Ur Shlonsky. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, no. 53. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Tov, Emanuel. 1999. “Renderings of Combinations of the Infinitive Absolute and Finite Verbs in the Septuagint—Their Nature and Distribution”. Ch. 17, pp. 247-256 in his The Greek and Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays on the Septuagint. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, no. 72. Leiden: Brill. Waltke, Bruce K., and M. O’Connor. 1990. An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake IN: Eisenbrauns. Wang, Ting. 2003. “The Use of the Infinitive Absolute in the Hebrew Bible”. Ph.D. diss., Hebrew Union College.