An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

substance (philosophical sense) a thing or being that is distinct in itself; that which is
essential and in which accidents inhere; see also accident
smoothing an effort to remove deviant (archaic, dialectal, geographical, etc.)
characteristics
stative a verb or verb form describing a state or quality; see also fientive
stem here a major inflectional category of the verb marking Aktionsart, e.g., himlîk is a
Hiphil stem form; elsewhere a form of the root intermediate in specification between
the root and a word, e.g., malk- is the stem of mélek, malkî, malkâ; or a form of a root
to which affixes are attached, e.g., -mov- is the stem of im-mov-able
substance (philosophical sense) a thing or being that is distinct in itself; that which is
essential and in which accidents inhere; see also accident[Page 694]
substantive see noun
suffix see affix
suffix conjugation the conjugation characterized by suffixing, e.g., qātal-tı̂, and
associated with perfective aspect; also perfective conjugation and qatal conjugation;
see also prefix conjugation
syncope shortening a word from the end
synoptic text a text preserved in two (or more) versions, thus Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22
are synoptic texts, and sections of Kings are synoptic with sections of Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Chronicles
syntagm a series of different elements forming a syntactic unit
telic possessing a goal or endpoint
tempus (Latin ‘time’) tense
tense the marking of a verb from to indicate chiefly the time of the situation described
relative to the time of speaking
topic-comment here a particular construction involving a topic (cf. nominative absolute)
followed by a comment; elsewhere an analytic approach to an informational unit (e.g.,
a clause) distinguishing old or given information (topic, theme) and new information
(comment, rheme)
transitive verb a verb that (usually) governs a (direct) object (one-place or singly
transitive) or, less often, two objects (two-place or doubly transitive); see also
intransitive verb
triconsonantal root a root composed of three consonants; usually excluded as
biconsonantal are medial and final weak roots, among others
vague unclear as a result of restricted or unspecified information, capable of an
unspecifiable range of variant interpretations; see also ambigous
valency the number of links a grammatical element, especially a verb, has other elements
verbal noun an infinitive, in Hebrew, of either type
verbless clause a clause that connects a subject and predicate with no verb, used for
classification or identification; also nominal clause
verse numerically regulated language; verse may be regulated in terms of the sound
material of language (as in English) or in terms of the syntactic material (as in
Hebrew); the numerical regulation always involves small numbers (an iambic foot in
English includes two syllables; a pentameter line includes five feet, etc.)
verset see line
vetitive a form expressing negative prohibition
vocative a form used in address, e.g., hammélek ‘O king’
voice an inflectional category of the verb referring to the relationship of the agent (actor)
and patient (undergoer): in active voice the agent is the subject and the patient is the