Une réévaluation linguistique de l'accusatif hébreu biblique
[Thesis]
Boulet, Jacques E. J.
Holmstedt, Robert D
University of Toronto (Canada)
2019
262 p.
Ph.D.
University of Toronto (Canada)
2019
This study applies generative linguistics to the Biblical Hebrew (BH) accusative. The standard BH grammars have treated accusative noun phrases under two broad categories, roughly object/complement and adverbial/adjunct. Not only do they disagree about which are objects and which are adverbial, but they have also tended to define subcategories without a clear methodology, usually based on lexical semantics. By contrast, my approach emphasizes syntactic definitions for the major categories, which I argue are three: secondary predicates, arguments, and modifiers. The syntactic and semantic framework of this study depends on the unified approach to predication of Bowers. Under that framework every predicate, whether primary or secondary, is assumed to have a predication phrase (PrP) structure. Secondary predicates are therefore defined very basically to be PrP structures which are somehow subordinate to a primary predication, and thus they may be adjuncts or they may be complements of the verb. Arguments are constituents which are selected by the verb according to one of its recognized valency patterns. There is a limited number of specific syntactic positions for arguments, and the underlying syntax of a verb's arguments depend on its semantics. In particular, I aim to show that there are four different trivalent structures in BH: prepositional ditransitives, double object constructions, causatives, and complementatives. Modifiers, since they are adjoined, may exist in any number. I assume that modifiers are predicates of one of four conceptual primitives (propositions, situations, events, and manners) and that modifiers attach in the domain which corresponds to the appropriate primitive (CP, TP, PrP, and vP respectively). This study also treats cognate accusatives, where the head noun is formed from the same root as the verb. I argue here that cognateness is not itself relevant for syntax, but rather cognate accusatives may function as arguments, modifiers, or secondary predicates. The analysis of cognate accusatives depends on the transitivity of the verb. This study treats the above categories in turn, providing ample examples from the biblical corpus (Genesis-Deuteronomy). The text of the dissertation is supplemented by a digital appendix of analyzed examples from the corpus.