Inflection

1988

Hebrew, as other ~emitic languages, has a rich morpl1ology, observable in part by the complexity of verb inflections. The primary base of verbs in Hebrew is the past third singular form of tlfe verb. From this base, some twenty eight different inflected forms can be created according to tense, per~on, gender and number. Traditionally, inflection tables were used to describe the various inflected forms derived from the verb 'base. Research done by Oman has managed to describe the verb inflection process using the principles of Generative Grammar. In' this approach, inflCfted verb forms are viewed as constructs of the form preftx+base+sufftx. Verb inflection is described as a s~ries of sequentialpperations. The first stage converts the primary verb base to a secondary'base, when the secondary base is not the same as the primary base. Secondly, the appropriate prefix and/or suffix are concatenated to the base. Thirdly, several morpho-phonemic changes due to the affix concat...

Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew , 2020

Inflection in Modern Hebrew is described as involving the following categories: Tense (Past, Future), Mood (Imperative), Person, Number, and Gender in verbs; Number, Gender, and Construct-State in nouns; Number and Gender in adjectives. Most inflection is manifested by suffixes, except for Person inflection on Future tense verbs. Inflection is obligatory for Tense in verbs, except for nominalized forms and Prepositions, Adjectives, and Participles. Noun inflection varies, depending on the features of Count for Number and Animacy for Gender. Accusative-case marking on verbs and Genitive-case marking on nouns are increasingly replaced by analytic alternatives in Modern Hebrew. The chapter first details the pronominal system, and then proceeds to description of the major lexical classes of Verbs, Nouns, and Adjectives, concluding with a brief discussion of conservative features as against variability and changes in MH inflection.

2012

This paper examines the realization of inflectional paradigms in the Semitic root-and pattern morphological system of Modern Hebrew. In the first part of the paper, a system of realizational statements is proposed, in the spirit of the framework of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz 1993). Two different, independent positions V1 and V2 are identified and defined relative to a basic discontinuous set of elements, the root. Employing the notion of default status, which is accorded to the vocalization of Type I verbs in the past, this move allows for an optimally economic set of rules for the realization of all active and passive verbs. In the second part of the paper, the account is extended to roots with a final underlying glide /j/. Within the verbal system, such roots give rise to a set of mostly vowel-final verbal stems. It is claimed that the traditional analysis, according to which the different realizations are synchronically the phonological reflex of this final /j/, is untenable, and especially so because these verbs have almost exactly the same realization in all Types. Realization rules are then formalized with the conditioning environment being this underlying final /j/, with [j] as the default realization of this element. Thus, a third element /j/ is both a class-marker-it gives rise to a set of phonologically-arbitrary realizationsand a simple phoneme.

Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew. Background, Morphology and Syntax, 2020

This is a contribution from Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew. Background, Morpholexicon, and Syntax. Edited by Ruth A. Berman.

2013

In: Ruth Berman (ed.), Usage -Based Studies in Modern Hebrew. Amsterdam: John Benjamins., 2020

The study explores a range of transitive constructions of varying prototypicality in Modern Hebrew (MH) referring to causal and non-causal events, including complex predicates, semi-transitive and lexicalized constructions, with transitivity analyzed as a morpho-syntactic category rather than a semantic concept. The chapter describes various types of alternations and variations in case-frame and argument structure in MH transitive constructions, noting the growing tendency towards labile alternation (ambitransitivity), particularly in the prototypical causative morphological pattern of the hif ˈil verb-template (e.g., hilbin 'whiten' serves both as causative 'make white' and inchoative 'become white'). In such cases, a change in the valence-frame of the verb does not necessarily involve change in the verb-morphology, yielding the claim that transitivity in MH does not depend exclusively on the semantic frame or morpho-phonological nature of the verb-pattern, but instead on the overall syntactic properties of the construction, which in turn is dependent on discourse requirements. Avoidance in discourse of the core O (object) argument is shown to occur even in highly transitive constructions, in which reader-hearers resolve the unrealized argument by context-based inferences and/or based on their communicative competence in conversational discourse.

2016

THIS STUDY considers some of the categories commonly associated with the notion ''auxiliary' ' from the point of view of Modern Hebrew. As background, a characterization of auxiliaries as syntactically and semantically DEPENDENT elements is suggested (Section I. I), and an attempt is made to show why many Hebrew studies to date have taken rather too unconstrained a view of the notion by extending it to virtually all verbs requiring an infinitival complement (Section 1.2). There then follows a review of the syntactic patterning of semantic categories typically included under the general heading of "auxilia-ries, " specifically Tense (Section 2), Modality (Section 3), and Aspect (Sec-tion 4), in an attempt to motivate the claim presented here that there is only one clear case of an auxiliary verb in Modern Hebrew-haya 'be '-as a marker of durative and perfective aspect and of conditional mood (Section 4.3). Worth noting here is the point made by...