Abstract
A negative polarity item (NPI) is a word or expression that is only grammatical in non-affirmative contexts such as negative, interrogative, and conditional clauses. An example of a biblical NPI is the indefinite pronoun מְאוּמָה ‘anything'. In a previous paper it was shown that the biblical noun דָּבָר ‘word, matter, action' is undergoing grammaticalization in classical BH, producing a semantically-bleached, but probably still lexical NPI strongly resembling מְאוּמָה. This path is completed in modern Hebrew, where davar is used as an indefinite pronoun ‘anything'. In this paper I look for evidence of grammaticalization of דבר in the Hebrew of the DSS and Ben Sira, comparing its progression to that observable in classical BH. Comparative data from late BH and Rabbinic Hebrew will be considered as well.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| State | Published - 2019 |
| Event | 9th International Symposium on the Language of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben Sira 2019 - Toronto and Hamilton, Canada Duration: 9 Apr 2019 → 11 Apr 2019 |
Conference
| Conference | 9th International Symposium on the Language of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben Sira 2019 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Canada |
| City | Toronto and Hamilton |
| Period | 9/04/19 → 11/04/19 |
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