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Verbs of leading in the Hebrew Bible.

Thesis information

*Author:   Leavins, Daniel C.;
*Advisor(s):   Griffith, Sidney H.
*Degree:   Ph.D.
*School:   The Catholic University of America.
*Year:   2008

Full Abstract


Scholars have given the study of Biblical Hebrew words, and especially verbs, a great amount of attention. Work on lexicons of Biblical Hebrew, theological dictionaries and various articles in journals give important details about individual verbs that appear in the Hebrew Bible. Despite these numerous studies on the individual verbs in Biblical Hebrew, little study has been done on subgroups of Hebrew verbs.;In this study, the verb class "verbs of leading" in the Hebrew Bible is analyzed Every occurrence of the verbs of leading in the Hebrew Bible is analyzed through the lens of semantic-role theory by assigning semantic roles (e.g., Agent, Object, Goal, Source, Path) to each of the phrases typically used with the verbs. The goal of the study is to more precisely define the verb class "verbs of leading" as a whole and, at a semantic and syntactic level, to more precisely distinguish between the individual verbs in this class.;The Biblical Hebrew verbs of leading are defined in this study as verbs that describe how animate, potent, and personal Agents cause animate and potent Objects to move over the space of some distance. There are six such verbs of leading in Biblical Hebrew. They are called the Class I verbs of leading in this study. A second group of verbs, the Class II verbs of leading, are not technically verbs of leading themselves; they are better described as translocative verbs. These Class II verbs, however, sometimes share the same lexical semantic features of the Class I verbs of leading. The Class II verbs occur about ten times more often in the Hebrew Bible than the Class I verbs.;This study accomplishes four things: first, the verb class "verbs of leading" is defined. Second, distinguishing features between the verbs of leading are identified. Third, several problem passages in the Bible are dealt with using insights from this analysis. Finally, observations about the Hebrew stem system are made based on the analysis of the Class II verbs.  
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