An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

c Just as sounds are the reality and phonemes the linguistically functional units,
forming an inseparable complex, so are allomorphs and morphemes inseparable.
Saussure expressed the distinction between morphemes and allomorphs in terms
of form and substance. Like all grammatical units, the morpheme is an element of
“form,” necessarily related to its “substantial” realization.
d The morphemes signifying the grammatical code are bound forms more often in
Hebrew than in English. For example, the morphemes signifying definiteness, the
infinitive, the genitive relation, etc., are all bound forms in Hebrew, whereas in
English the article is the separate word ‘the,’ and the infinitive and the possessive
relation are shown by the prepositions ‘to’ and ‘of.’
3.3.3 Syntagms
a A syntagm is an ordered and unified arrangement of words or word elements in
the linear flow of speech. When two or more elements in word, phrase, or
idiomatic construction co-occur in a distinctive way, as in the verb + particle
phrase ‘run away’ or in the adjective + noun combination ‘poor Nathan,’ they may
be called a syntagm. Phrasal syntagms may be used in building up clauses,
sentences, and higher units. Higher syntagm structures may be seen as involving
slots, the positions occupied by a word, phrase, or clause in a structure. The slots
which elements occupy with respect to each other in syntagms may be
significant. 19 Contrast, for example, the English sentences ‘The dog bit [Page 53]
the man’ and ‘The man bit the dog.’ In Hebrew the predicate and attributive
adjectives are distinguished by whether they precede or follow the modified noun.
The word order of English tends to be more fixed than that of Hebrew. The key to
Hebrew word order involves one basic relation, requiring that the governing
element (regens) generally precede the governed (rectum). Thus, in Hebrew
generally the relational particle precedes (and is thus called a preposition) the
object ( באוֹמ ָ ידַ ְשׁ ִבּ ), the possessed precedes the possessor ( שׁיאִ ה ָ ם ֵשׁ ), the
noun precedes the attributive adjectives ( תוֹיּבִ אֹמ ֲ םי ִשׁ נָ
), and the verb precedes
the subject ( ךְ ֶל ֶמיל ֫ א ֱ ת ָמ יָּ֫ קַ
).
19 The concept of the tagmeme, developed by Kenneth L. Pike, is another approach to
this complex area of study. A tagmeme is “the correlation of a grammatical function
or slot with a class of mutually substitutable items occurring in that slot”; B. Elson
and V. B. Pickett, An Introduction to Morphology and Syntax (Santa Ana, California:
Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1964) 57. For example, a noun and a noun clause can
both fill the first slot in ‘_______ is good,’e.g., ‘Water is good,’ ‘Drinking water is
good,’ ‘To wash one’s face is good,’etc. In tagmemic theory, a syntagm is a
grammatical relationship between tagmemes; see F.I. Andersen, The Hebrew Verbless
Clause in the Pentateuch (Nashville: Abingdon, 1970) 25–27.