An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

The traditional segregation of pronouns has certain advantages. The pronoun class,
like the deictic system it is part of (13.1), 2 is essentially a closed class (4.2), that is,
limited in membership. 3 The pronouns are “workhorses”—they are used frequently
and play an important role in all grammatical functioning. The class of pronouns is
morphologically diverse: usual categories of Hebrew inflection such as number and
gender are manifest, but sometimes in unusual ways. Pronominal shapes are also
unusual; the word elements are interlinked in complex ways (cf. 17.2, 19.2).
[Page 291] c The four major pronominal groups are each distinct. Personal pronouns
refer to speaker, to hearer, or to the topic under discussion; they are syntactically the
least specialized group. Demonstratives single out a person or thing referred to (e.g.,
English ‘This is the land’); they share some features of third-person pronouns (e.g.,
‘This/She is the queen’) and are also adjectival in character. The interrogatives and
indefinites compose a single correlative group, one part associated with questions
(e.g., ‘Who is the queen?’) and the other with a particular sort of reference (e.g.,
‘Whoever the queen is, she must rule’). The indefinite pronouns are only one variety
of indefinite usage, just as questions can be asked without interrogatives (40.3).
Relative pronouns link up preceding and following elements (e.g., ‘The queen → who
→ rules well will prosper’; ‘I visited the queen → who → called for me’).
d One special feature of the Hebrew personal pronouns is the extent to which they refer
to persons rather than objects, or, more strictly, to animates rather than inanimates.
Only ימ ִ ‘who’ is comparably restricted among the other pronouns. In the first- and
second-person slots the limitation to animates is complete, and in the third-person slot
it is nearly perfect.
e The personal pronouns have been cited in numerous examples in the previous
chapters, but they are the special concern of this chapter. In succeeding chapters the
other pronominal groups will be treated (Chaps. 17–19).
16.2 Personal Pronouns
a There are two classes of personal pronouns in Hebrew, and they are distinguished on
both formal and functional grounds. 4 The independent personal pronouns are both
free-standing words and nominative in function, whereas the pronominal suffixes are
never free standing and are in function genitive (with nouns and prepositions) or
2
The deictic quality of pronouns is highlighted in the late antique view of them as
“substance (or being) without qualities.” See Robins, Short History of Linguistics, 37,
cf. 54, 57–58, 79–80.
3
There are some interesting marginal cases; in some instances kl ‘each, all’ is used as
a pronoun, while ˓bdk ‘your servant’ is a high-style, quasi-honorific substitute for a
first-person pronoun. On ˓bdk/h in Ugaritic, see UT §6.15. See also P. Swiggers, MPD
60–61.
4
Note especially that Hebrew has no pronominal adjectives, such as are common in
the European languages (English ‘mine,’ French ‘mienne,’ German ‘mein’); on
reflexive usage, see 16.4g.