Is There a Negative Polarity Item ‮dvr‬‎ in DSS Hebrew?

A negative polarity item (NPI) is a word or expression that occurs grammatically in negative clauses and a variety of other types of clauses such as interrogatives and conditionals, but not in ordinary affirmative sentences. Examples from classical Biblical Hebrew include the pronoun ‮מאומה‬‎ “anyth...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Dead Sea discoveries
Subtitles:Special Issue: The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben Sira
Main Author: Moshavi, Adina Mosak (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Brill [2020]
In: Dead Sea discoveries
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Old Testament / Rabbinic literature / Hebrew language / Grammaticalization / Dbr / Negativer Polaritätsausdruck / Syntax
IxTheo Classification:HB Old Testament
HD Early Judaism
Further subjects:B item
B Dead Sea Scrolls
B pseudo-classicism
B Grammaticalization
B negative polarity
B Syntax
B Biblical Hebrew
B Rabbinic Hebrew
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:A negative polarity item (NPI) is a word or expression that occurs grammatically in negative clauses and a variety of other types of clauses such as interrogatives and conditionals, but not in ordinary affirmative sentences. Examples from classical Biblical Hebrew include the pronoun ‮מאומה‬‎ “anything” and the semantically-bleached noun ‮דבר‬‎ “a thing,” which has been produced from the ordinary noun ‮דבר‬‎ “word, matter, action” by the process of grammaticalization. This paper examines the noun ‮דבר‬‎ in the non-biblical DSS with the purpose of determining whether it is used as there as an NPI, as in Biblical Hebrew, or as an ordinary semantically-bleached noun, as in Rabbinic Hebrew. The results show that the diachronic development of ‮דבר‬‎ in the DSS appears to be at an earlier stage than classical Biblical Hebrew, despite the later dating of the scrolls. This finding is explained as a special kind of pseudo-classicism.
ISSN:1568-5179
Contains:Enthalten in: Dead Sea discoveries
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685179-bja10016