Re: questions about Arabic

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001 11:55:50 +0100 Christophe Grandsire
<christophe.grandsire@...> writes:
> En réponse à Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>:
> > Just for a little intra-Semitic comparison,
> > The root KVN in Hebrew can mean:
> > to aim
> > to concentrate
> > to prepare
> > to intend
> > to be set up
> >
> > depending on the paradigm.
> Does Hebrew have an equivalent to the derived forms of Arabic to
> account for so
> many possible meanings (still related it seems though)? What I'm
> wondering now
> is the original meaning of the root KWN in Proto-Semitic, to account
> for the
> meaning "to be" in Arabic and "to aim, concentrate, etc..." in
> Hebrew. Still, I
> can see some connections (for instance, I could see "to prepare" as
> the
> inchoactive of a factitive of "to be", or something like that).
>
> Christophe.
-

If i'm understanding what you mean by "derived forms", it does.  In
Hebrew they're called _binyanim_, meaning "buildings" or "structures".  I
usually call them "paradigms" in English.  There are 7 of them:
They're named after their past-masculine-thirdperson forms.

pa`al (also known as _qal_, "simple") ~ CâCaC
nif`al (passive) ~ niCCaC

pi`eil (intensive) ~ CiC²êC
pu`al (intensive-passive) ~ CuC²aC

hif`il (causative) ~ hiCCîC
huf`al (causative-passive) ~ huCCaC

hitpa`eil (reflexive) ~ hitCaC²êC

As my _201 Hebrew Verbs_ book explains better than i could, "The actual
meaning of the several forms of verbs is not always evident in
translation in relation to the form.  It is therefore much more advisable
to identify the forms by their vocalization and general appearance than
by their meaning."


-Stephen (Steg)
 "yihyeh tov, yihyeh tov, kein - lif`amim ani nishba`..."
     ~ almost but not quite "yihyeh tov" by Broza?

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