Abstract

Inflection in Modern Hebrew is described as involving the following categories: Tense (Past, Future), Mood (Imperative), Person, Number, and Gender in verbs; Number, Gender, and Construct-State in nouns; Number and Gender in adjectives. Most inflection is manifested by suffixes, except for Person inflection on Future tense verbs. Inflection is obligatory for Tense in verbs (except for nominalized forms) and in Prepositions, Adjectives, and Participles. Noun inflection varies, depending on the features of Count for Number and Animacy for Gender. Accusative-case marking on verbs and Genitive-case marking on nouns are increasingly replaced by analytic alternatives in Modern Hebrew. The chapter first details the pronominal system, and then proceeds to description of the major lexical classes of Verbs, Nouns, and Adjectives, concluding with a brief discussion of conservative features as against variability and changes in MH inflection.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUsage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew Background, Morpho-lexicon, and Syntax
EditorsRuth A. Berman
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages147-202
Number of pages56
ISBN (Electronic)9789027262066
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Publication series

NameStudies in Language Companion Series
Volume210

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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