Department of Modern Foreign Languages

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The hiphʹil verbal theme in biblical Hebrew
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1971-09) Claassen, Walter Theophilus; Fensham, F. C.; Van Zijl, P. J.; Barr, James; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Modern Foreign Languages-.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Semitic verbal system and especially that of Hebrew, has already been the subject of various discussions. During the first half of this century the so-called tenses (tempera) have probably received the most attention from scholars. This subject has been thoroughly investigated, and comparative Semitic material has been used for this purpose to a great extent, sometimes to the good and sometimes erroneousiy. 1) In the past few years attention has been drawn to a different aspect of the verbal system which had long been characterized by a somewhat uncritical acceptance, namely the aspect of the so-called stem-formations or verbal themes. 2) The shades of meaning which are connected with these verbal themes have been represented in traditional grammar as being relatively simple and even completely predictable: The basic idea expressed by the root is modified with regularity and in an unvarying way to provide new meanings, e.g. passive, reflexive, intensive and causative. However, the design was not quite so simple, and the function of verbal themes was defined in detail in the standard grammars.