Abstract: 1. Subject personal pronouns in Biblical Hebrew Since Semitic verbal inflection is effected by means of personal affixes, independent subject pronouns in languages such as Arabic and Hebrew are redundant in both the perfect and the imperfect, and typically serve only for emphasis, or occasionally where required on rhythmical grounds. In some cases they fulfill a contrastive function: A form like natat+ti 'I gave' in Biblical Hebrew (BH), which is marked for 1st per. sing, by //, would not be preceded by the independent subject pronoun T ('anoki or 'ani), except for contrastive emphasis, as in 'anoki natatti (myself) gave' (Gen 16:5), ki hemayad'u 'because they knew' (Jer. 5:15).' BH subject pronouns may also be used to emphasize short statements, particularly solemn promises, as in 'anoki 'ishshabea' swear' (Gen 21:24).2 The fuller statement is perceptually more prominent than the bare verbal form, and the emphasis is produced and perceived more effectively when distributed rhythmically over the sub ject as well as the verb. In some other cases, the use of independent pro nouns is purely rhythmical; they may occasionally be found in poetic bibli cal parallelisms, where their presence is a rhythmical stylistic necessity, as in (1). (1) 'ani yada'-ti 'eprayim I knew-I Ephraim ve-yisra'el lo nikhad mimmenni and-Israel not hidden from-me
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 4
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot