An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

apocope the shortening of a form at the end and the resulting changes in syllable structure
apodosis the ‘then’ clause of an ‘if-then’ or conditional sentence, a term used here in the
broadest sense; see also protasis
apposition juxtaposition of a noun (or noun phrase) to another noun (or noun phrase)
with the same reference and in the same grammaticial slot
archaic marked by characteristics of an earlier time
archaizing a process by which the characteristics of an earlier time are imitated
argument a noun (or noun phrase) slot in a sentence, i.e., subject, object, etc.
aspect the marking of a verb form to indicate chiefly the structure over time of the
situation described; see Aspekt and Aktionsart
Aspekt (German) the way in which the internal structure of a situation is understood in
relation to time, as either complete or not; see also Aktionsart and aspect.
asyndetic lacking a(n excepted) conjunction or other connector
attributive adjective an adjective that posits an attribute of the substantive it modifies,
e.g., hammā˒ôr haggādōl ‘the great light’; see also predicate adjective
base here a form of a root intermediate in specification between the root and a word, e.g.,
qtl is a root, -qtōl- is the prefix conjugation base, and yiqtōl is a word
biconsonantal root a root composed of two consonants, e.g., bn, the root of bên
‘between’ and bn(y), the source of bny ‘to build’
binyan (Hebrew ‘building’) stem[Page 690]
case (function) here a group of semantic and syntactic phenomena that can plausibly be
grouped together, on the basis of both internal and comparative date; elsewhere an
inflection of a noun or pronoun reflecting various semantic and syntactic phenomena;
the Semitic cases include the nominative (the case of subject, vocative, predicate in
verbless clauses), accusative (the case of nouns modifying the verb, notably of direct
object), and genitive (the case of nouns modifying other nouns, notably of possessor,
and of prepositional object), as well as, marginally, the dative (case of indirect object,
usually a recipient)
casus pendens (lating ‘hanging case’) see nominative absolute
cataphora reference of a grammatical element to something mentioned later, e.g., in
‘When he fled, Moses was afraid,’ he is a cataphoric pronoun; see also anaphora
causative see factitive
citation form the form of a word given in isolated citation, as in a lexicon; also
dictionary form
cognate forms words that are ultimately derived form the same source, e.g., Hebrew šēm,
Akkadian šumu, and Arabic ism are cognates
colon see line
complement an element in a grammatical construction that completes the predicate,
notable types being objects and some adverbials
complex senetence a sentence made up of a main clause and one or more dependent
clauses; see also compound sentence
compound sentence a sentence made up of several coordinate clauses; see also complex
sentence
concord see agreement
congruence see agreement
conjugation a major inflectional category of verbs, the principal Hebrew conjugations
being the qatal (or perfective or suffix) conjugation and the yiqtol (or non-perfective
or prefix) conjugation
constative referring to remaining or persisting in a state