One More Look at the Negation of the Infinitive Construct in Second Temple Hebrew

Second Temple Hebrew (Late Biblical Hebrew, Ben Sira, and Qumranic Hebrew) makes predicative use of two seemingly similar constructions: לא + infinitive and אין + infinitive. A syntactic examination of the two from a historical perspective, in light of morphosyntactic changes in the verbal system of...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mor, Uri (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2015
In: Vetus Testamentum
Year: 2015, Volume: 65, Issue: 3, Pages: 437-456
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Old Testament / Sirach / Dead Sea scrolls, Qumran Scrolls / Infinitive construction / Negation
IxTheo Classification:HB Old Testament
HD Early Judaism
Further subjects:B Infinitive modality predicativity negation Late Biblical Hebrew Ben Sira the Dead Sea Scrolls
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:Second Temple Hebrew (Late Biblical Hebrew, Ben Sira, and Qumranic Hebrew) makes predicative use of two seemingly similar constructions: לא + infinitive and אין + infinitive. A syntactic examination of the two from a historical perspective, in light of morphosyntactic changes in the verbal system of Second Temple Hebrew and its sentence patterns, reveals that in spite of the similarities between them in form and in function, these are two seperate constructions that evolved independently. The former, initially a verbal phrase, is the negative counterpart of the affirmative predicative infinitive, and the latter, which constitutes a complete predication, is an offshoot of the existential pattern יש/אין + nominal phrase. In the Hebrew style of the Second Temple period the difference between them narrowed, so that they were occasionally interchangeable.
ISSN:1568-5330
Contains:In: Vetus Testamentum
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685330-12301199