An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

c Grammarians have abstracted notional values for these classes; for example, the
noun class, it is said, typically signifies persons, places, and things; the adjective
class attributes a quality to the noun; etc. Semantic subclasses are also described
according to notional values. Members of the Noun (a) class cited above belong to
the class of “animate nouns,” while the example of the Noun (b) class is an
“inanimate noun.” The way in which word classes are notionally labeled is a
matter distinct from the linguistic procedures used to isolate the classes; the labels
may be in themselves misleading. By “parts of speech” we mean both the classes
to which words belong on formal distributional grounds and the abstract, common
notion belonging to the class. In Hebrew, the principal parts of speech are noun
and verb; adjectives belong to the class of nouns,[Page 66] along with
substantives; adverbs are a small class. The categories of preposition and
conjunction overlap; these two, along with some adverbs, are often simply called
particles. The class of exclamations and interjections, for example, יוֹה ‘woe,’
ה ָלי ִל֫ חָ
‘far be it!,’ א ָ
נ ‘I pray,’ is of lesser importance. 2
d The parts of speech have mixed definitions, in part based on semantic or
referential factors and in part based on various formal features. There is no single
universal scheme of the parts of speech, and no universal set of matchings
between the parts of speech and syntagms more complicated than phrases. Since
syntax, as we are presenting it here, is the systematic study of how words are used,
some aspects of the history of word classification are worth mentioning. The
word-class system goes back to Hellenistic times (its continuity with earlier, Near
Eastern models remains unexplored), and, although grammatical papyri from
Egypt show that the system assumed many different forms, tradition assigns it to
Dionysius Thrax (ca. 100 B.C.E.). The whole scheme reflects both classical and
later Stoic philosophical thought, but Dionysius and the papyri authors are
properly grammarians rather than philosophers. 3 There is a threefold base: Greek
onoma ‘the naming,’ rhēma ‘the speaking,’ and syndesmos ‘the binding’; under
these three headings we can arrange the eight categories of Dionysius:
class part of speech
the naming 1. name (i.e., noun)
2 If we distinguish “content” and “function” words (3.2.2), nouns and verbs are
roughly equivalent to “content” words and particles are “function” words. H. Irsigler
takes nouns and verbs as Hauptwörter (‘principal words’) and conjunctions,
prepositions, pronouns, adverbs, and interjections as Funktionswörter (‘function
words’); see Einführung in das biblische Hebräisch (St. Ottilien: EOS, 1978), 1. 49.
For further preliminaries to Hebrew word classification, see Richter, GAHG 1, esp.
43–45, 64–65; for a technical survey (notably good on particles and pronouns), pp.
80–91; see further below on Richter’s word-class scheme.
3 See MPD 9–12 (R. H. Robins).