Studies In Semitic Syntax

This study of the syntactic constructions of extraposition and pronominal agreement in Semitic languages--Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic, Syriac, Akkadian, and Amharic--examines both structure and function, using a method of discourse analysis to demonstrate how syntactic constructions are used to mark boundaries in the semantic structure of texts.

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2000 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, University of Stuttgart, language: English, abstract: This work places the theory of Transformational Grammar into the foreground presenting it applied to Arabic and partly to Hebrew. In the first part of this work the theory is presented summarizing all rules and principles that are relevant for this subject. In the second and third part of this work the analyses of Abdelkader Fassi-Fehri and Ur Shlonsky are examined with regard to the syntactic structure of Arabic and Hebrew. Finally, it may be observed that this work more or less applies a syntactic theory to a language rather than advancing a new one itself.

This volume is dedicated to professor Jacob Hoftijzer on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday as well as of his retirement from the chair of "Hebrew Language and Literature, the Israelite Antiquities and Ugaritic" at the University of Leiden. After a preface by A. van der Heide and a bibliographical list of Hoftijzer's publications, the volume contains 16 essays on syntactical questions in the field of Hebrew and Aramaic. Most of these essays deal with subjects occurring in Hoftijzer's publications. Such are the nominal sentence, the particle 'et', questions related to clause types as well as to word order and concord within sentences, the status and use of particles and verbal forms. Whereas Biblical Hebrew is discussed in most of the essays, other language forms are represented as well, esp. Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew, Imperial Aramaic, Middle Aramaic and Classical Syriac.

Collected in this volume are articles published over the last three decades, which deal with various aspects of Semitic languages in general, the structure of Hebrew, history of Arab grammatical tradition, Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic, Syriac syntax, and particularly with Ethiopian languages (Amharic and Old Amharic Gurage, Harari and Comparative Ethiopian). While discussing general, language-specific and comparative issues, special attention is devoted in these studies to syntax, to the examination of linguistic methodology and to the contribution of Semitics to the Science of language.

The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

This is a stimulating description by an outstanding Hebraist and Semitist of some essential features characterising the syntax of Hebrew used in non-artistic prose during the 12th-15th centuries in Southern France and Spain. An essential reading for any Hebraist and Semitist interested in the historical development of Hebrew syntax.

Historical syntax has long been neglected in the study of the Semitic languages, although it holds great value for the subgrouping of this diverse language family. Focusing on the development of adverbial subordination, nominal modifiers and direct speech marking, as well as reviewing changes through language contact and drift, this book is the first step in the syntactic reconstruction of the Aramaic dialect group, the longest-attested branch of the Semitic language family.

In view of the great upsurge of interest in syntax in recent years, it is remarkable that there are so few studies of Arabic syntax, and the works of a diachronic orientation are virtually nonexistent. The main portion of this book is historical, dealing with fundamental mechanisms of syntactic and semantic change. Here Bloch has made a substantial contribution to the historical syntax of Arabic. Throughout the book the phenomena are viewed form a broad perspective that takes into account evidence not only from all periods and genres of Arabic (Ancient Poetic, Koranic, Classical, Middle, Modern Literary and Colloquial) but also from other Semitic (and occasionally non-Semitic). In the second printing are almost exclusively corrections of misprints and other minor alterations made.

Preliminary Material /M. M. BRAVMANN -- PREFACE /M. M. BRAVMANN -- PHONOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE VOWEL I AS AN AUXILIARY VOWEL /M. M. BRAVMANN -- A PHONETIC LAW IN THE JUDEO-ARABIC DIALECT OF BAGHDAD /M. M. BRAVMANN -- SOME ASPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEMITIC DIPHTHONGS /M. M. BRAVMANN -- BI-CONSONANTAL NOUNS OF ROOTS III W ('AB, 'AḪ, ḤAM) /M. M. BRAVMANN -- A CASE OF QUANTITATIVE ABLAUT IN SEMITIC /M. M. BRAVMANN -- ON TWO CASES OF CONSONANT CHANGE IN MODERN ARABIC DIALECTS /M. M. BRAVMANN -- HEBREW ŠTAYIM ('TWO'), SYRIAC ŠTĀ ('SIX') AND A TURKIC ANALOGUE /M. M. BRAVMANN -- CONCERNING THE BORDER-LINE BETWEEN CONSONANT AND VOWEL /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE HEBREW PERFECT FORMS: QĀṬELĀ, QĀṬELŪ /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE 3RD PERS. SING. FEM. OF THE PERFECT OF ROOTS III Y/W IN ARABIC /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE ARAMAIC NOMEN AGENTIS QĀTŌL AND SOME SIMILAR PHENOMENA OF ARABIC /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE PLURAL ENDING -ŪT- OF MASCULINE ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES IN AKKADIAN /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE ORIGIN OF SOME ARABIC PRONOUNS /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE FORMS OF THE IMPERATIVE (AND JUSSIVE) IN THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE SEMITIC CAUSATIVE-PREFIX Š/SA /M. M. BRAVMANN -- SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC STUDIES /M. M. BRAVMANN -- GENETIC ASPECTS OF THE GENITIVE IN THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE SYNTACTIC BACKGROUND OF SEMITIC NOUNS WITH PREFIX MA- AND OF PARTICIPLES WITH PREFIX MU- /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE INFINITIVE IN THE FUNCTION OF “PSYCHOLOGICAL PREDICATE” IN SYRIAC /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE EXPRESSION OF INSTANTANEOUSNESS IN ARABIC /M. M. BRAVMANN -- SOME SPECIFIC FORMS OF HYPOTAXIS IN ANCIENT ARABIC /M. M. BRAVMANN -- SYRIAC DALMĀ “LEST”, “PERHAPS” AND SOME RELATED ARABIC PHENOMENA /M. M. BRAVMANN -- ARABIC LĀKIN(NA) AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE ORIGIN OF ARABIC BA'DA “AFTER” /M. M. BRAVMANN -- AN ARABIC SENTENCE-TYPE EXPRESSING “INNER COMPULSION” /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE IDEA OF “POSSESSION” IN LINGUISTIC EXPRESSION /M. M. BRAVMANN -- ARABIC PARALLELS TO THE ENGLISH PHRASE /M. M. BRAVMANN -- EXPRESSIONS BASED ON THE NOUN YAWM- “DAY” /M. M. BRAVMANN -- ARABIC ASLAMA (ISLĀM) AND RELATED TERMS /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE ORIGIN OF THE PRINCIPLE OF 'IṢMAH: MUḤAMMAD'S “IMMUNITY FROM SIN” /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE “COMPLETION” OR “IMPROVEMENT” OF A LAUDABLE DEED: AN ANCIENT ARAB ETHICAL MOTIF /M. M. BRAVMANN -- SEMITIC INSTANCES OF “LINGUISTIC TABOO” /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE ONOMATOPOETIC ORIGIN OF SOME TERMS FOR THE CONCEPT “SUDDEN” /M. M. BRAVMANN -- “SATISFYING” AND “RESTRAINING”: ARABIC KAFĀ (KFY) > KAFFA /M. M. BRAVMANN -- ARABIC MA'TAM “MOURNING ASSEMBLY” AND RELATED ETYMA /M. M. BRAVMANN -- AKKADIAN KIPRU( M), PL. KIPRĀTU( M) AND ETHIOPIC KANFAR /M. M. BRAVMANN -- ARAMAIC MESAR, NEO-HEBRAIC MĀSAR “TO SURRENDER (SOMEONE) ” /M. M. BRAVMANN -- AN ARABIC PARALLEL TO BENEDICERE /M. M. BRAVMANN -- NORTH-SEMITIC ḤAYYĪM/N “LIFE” IN THE LIGHT OF ARABIC /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE BIBLICAL CONCEPT “THE TREASURE OF LIFE” AND ITS SURVIVAL IN MANDAEAN AND CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES /M. M. BRAVMANN -- THE ROOT HWY “TO BE”, A PROTO-SEMITIC VERB /M. M. BRAVMANN.