Lab 2 – Hebrew Write Up Note on the transcription: in the questions I posted on e-post I presented the examples in some sort of phonetic transcription in case somebody feels compelled to try to pronounce them. In this write up the examples are all presented in characters that are the result of a one-to-one transliteration from the Hebrew characters (written without the dots, but in plene notation). These examples are, therefore, essentially not pronounceable to the uninitiated. A more detailed explanation of the transliteration used is presented at the end of this write up. The phenomena for this week: 1. Basic Word Order 2. Pronouns 3. Determiners 4. Argument Optionality 5. Agreement 6. Case Basic Word Order In declarative matrix clauses, the canonical order is SVO. #131 h-ildh qwrat at h-spr the-girl read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book ‘The girl is reading the book.’ VSO is also a commonly seen order. #137 qwrat h-ildh at h-spr read:PRES.SG.F the-girl ACC the-book ‘The girl is reading the book.’ However, all other word orders, though perhaps less common, are also grammatical in appropriate contexts. Some of these sound odd out of context but not impossible in the way “reading the book the girl” is. It seems that in some of the linguistic literature some of these word orders are ruled out, but they sound OK to me. I will attempt to provide attested examples of all of these orders, though for the purposes of keeping the lexicon and grammar simple, I will probably incorporate into the grammar the concocted examples presented here rather than the real life sentences I find, even though these particular examples may be unlikely to occur in real life. As I continue working on this project if I become convinced that indeed some of these sentences are not grammatical, I will revise my set of examples. SOV: #126 h-ildh at h-spr qwrat the-girl ACC the-book read:PRES.SG.F ‘The girl is reading the book.’ Here are examples from the internet: abl hia at yini-h hepilh but she ACC eyes-hers turn_down:HIFIL.PAST.3SG.F ‘But she turned down her eyes.’ From: http://www.maccabifans.co.il/forum/index.php?s=2dc14818b0ac547fdfc1fa87c58dd625&showtopic=16067&st=60 mbli e-em lb hwa at yini-w ycm without that-put:PAAL.PAST.3SG.M heart:SG.M he ACC eyes-his shut:PAAL.PAST.3SG.M ‘Without noticing it, he shut his eyes.’ From: http://www.tzura.co.il/tshsd/yezira.asp?sug=h&codyezira=26132&code=3931 ki hwa awti la mbin because he me neg understand:PRES.SG.M ‘Because he me doesn’t understand.’ ?? ??? ???? ?? ???? From: http://www.tapuz.co.il/blog/print.asp?EntryId=314543 . It may be claimed that these are only OK if there is a certain trigger (like “but”). I have to check this further. VOS: #136 qwrat at h-spr h-ildh read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book the-girl ‘The girl is reading the book.’ qmw_kn meme at rae h-mmelh h-iwyc h-cbai e… similarly serve:PIEL.PRES.3SG ACC head.SG.M the-government.SG.F the-adviser.SG.M the-military.SG.M that… ‘Similarly the prime minister is served by the military adviser who….’ or: ‘Similarly the military adviser who…serves the prime minister.’ – the main verb is active, not passive. This order is definitely OK. I need to find a less convoluted example. OVS: #123 at h-spr qwrat h-ildh ACC the-book read:PRES.SG.F the-girl ‘The girl is reading the book.’ An example from the internet: at h-spr qrah d”r erh awscki lzr ….. ACC the-book read dr. sara osecki lazar… ‘The book was read by Dr. Sara Osecki Lazar..” From: http://www.glz.msn.co.il/glz/programs/sfarim/775E434BCF494FCDAD3BF071CB85FF2E.htm OSV: #122 at h-spr h-ildh qwrat ACC the-book the-girl read:PRES.SG.F ‘The girl is reading the book.’ wpl-im ani awhb wafer-PL.M I like:PRES.SG.M ‘Wafers I like.’ When other complements are present, the complement order is also free. I will present here only some of the possible combinations so as to avoid combinatorial explosion, but it may be assumed that unless specifically stated as prohibited any variation is OK. Indirect Object – location – free standing preposition: #128 h-ildh emh at h-spr yl h-ewlxn the-girl put:PAST.SG.F ACC the-book on the-table ‘The girl put the book on the table.’ #125 emh h-ildh at h-spr yl h-ewlxn put:PAST.SG.F the-girl ACC the-book on the-table ‘The girl put the book on the table.’ #88 h-ildh emh yl h-ewlxn at h-spr the-girl put:PAST.SG.F on the-table ACC the-book ‘The girl put the book on the table.’ Indirect Object – beneficiary – preposition is prefexied to the NP (note that l+h=l; I still need to figure out what is the best way of glossing this): #89 h-ildh ntnh at h-spr l-ild the-girl give.PAST.SG.F ACC the-book to.the-boy ‘The girl gave the book to the boy.’ #130 h-ildh ntnh l-ild at h-spr the-girl give.PAST.SG.F to.the-boy ACC the-book ‘The girl gave the book to the boy.’ #121 at h-spr h-ildh ntnh l-ild ACC the-book the-girl give.PAST.SG.F to.the-boy ‘The girl gave the book to the boy.’ or rather ‘The book the girl gave to the boy.’ I don’t think Hebrew has any ditransitives. In any case, the English equivalents are ungrammatical. #129 * h-ildh ntnh at h-ild at h-spr the-girl give.PAST.SG.F ACC the-boy ACC the-book ‘The girl gave the boy the book.’ The auxiliary verb normally appears right in front of the main verb, but that position is also not rigid; some of the order may exhibit a subtle shift in the preferred reading (exhibited in the translation into English). The following three examples are here just for illustrative purposes. I am not including auxiliaries or questions in this week’s testsuite. #139 h-am h-ildh ikwlh ltt at h-spr l-ild ? the-if the-girl can:PRES.SG.F give.INF ACC the-book to.the-boy ? ‘May the girl give the book to the boy?’ #140 h-am ikwlh h-ildh ltt at h-spr l-ild ? the-if can:PRES.SG.F the-girl give.INF ACC the-book to.the-boy ? ‘Can the girl give the book to the boy?’ #141 h-am ikwlh h-ildh at h-spr ltt l-ild ? the-if can:PRES.SG.F the-girl ACC the-book give.INF to.the-boy ? ‘Can the girl give the book to the boy?’ The accusative marker “at” must immediately precede the NP it marks and may not be separated from it. Additional examples pertaining to this marker will be presented in the CASE section. #131 h-ildh qwrat at h-spr the-girl read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book ‘The girl is reading the book.’ #132 * h-ildh qwrat h-spr at the-girl read:PRES.SG.F the-book ACC ‘The girl is reading the book.’ #135 mh hwa qwra ? what he read:PRES.SG.M ? ‘What is he reading?’ #124 at mh hw qwra ? ACC what he read:PRES.SG.M ? 'What is he reading?' or ‘He is reading WHAT?’ When the question word is “who” rather than “what”, only the version with the accusative marker is grammatical. This requires further investigation on my part as I am not sure what is going on. The questions above will not be in the current testsuite. In any case, leaving the accuastive marker in its original position is not an option at all: #134 * mh hw qwra at ? what he read:PRES.SG.M ACC ? ‘What is he reading?’ A preposition must immediately precede its complement NP and may not be separated from it (except in my son’s Hebrew, which is influenced by his English and allows constructions such as: “what is this for?” which in adult Hebrew are ungrammatical :)) #128 h-ildh emh at h-spr yl h-ewlxn the-girl put:PAST.SG.F ACC the-book on the-table ‘The girl put the book on the table.’ #127 * h-ildh emh at h-spr h-ewlxn yl the-girl put:PAST.SG.F ACC the-book the-table on ‘The girl put the book on the table.’ #138 yl mh h-ildh emh at h-spr ? on what the-girl put:PAST.SG.F ACC the-book ? ‘On what has the girl put the book?’ #133 * mh h-ildh emh at h-spr yl ? what the-girl put:PAST.SG.F ACC the-book on ? ‘What has the girl put the book on?’ Word order with the NP: The word order within the NP is as follows: determiner, numeral, noun, adjective, demonstrative pronoun, possessive pronoun, other (pp, relative clauses) ani qwrat at kl eet h-spr-im h-myniin-im h-alh eli m-aitlih. I read:PRES.SG.F ACC all six.M.DEP the-book-PL.M the-intreseting-PL.M the-these.PL my from-Italy ‘I am reading all six of my interesting books from Italy.’ This word order is fixed. All other word order possibilities for the elements in the above sentence result in ungrammatical sentences. Note: I glossed the numeral in the above example, “eet”, pronounced, “sheshet”, six.M.DEP, with “dep” standing for “dependent”. This is a special form of the numeral which is used when the numeral is modifying a definite noun. I will not attempt to handle the issue of such dependent numeral forms and the related issue of construct nouns at the present. Depending on how things go I may try to tackle it at a later point. So the above sentence will not be included in the current testsuite. Here are some examples of the relative ordering of some of the elements within the NP that I will use in the current testsuite. #8 ani qwrat spr-im myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F book-PL.M intreseting-PL.M ‘I read interesting books.’ #120 * ani qwrat myniin-im spr-im I read:PRES.SG.F intreseting-PL.M book-PL.M ‘I read interesting books.’ #117 ani qwrat at h-spr-im h-myniin-im h-alh. I read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book-PL.M the-intreseting-PL.M the-these.PL ‘I am reading these interesting books.’ #116 * ani qwrat at h-alh h-spr-im h-myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-these.PL the-book-PL.M the-intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading these interesting books.’ #119 ani qwrat at kl h-spr-im h-myniin-im h-alh. I read:PRES.SG.F ACC all the-book-PL.M the-intreseting-PL.M the-these.PL ‘I am reading all of these interesting books.’ #118 * ani qwrat at h-spr-im h-myniin-im h-alh kl I read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book-PL.M the-intreseting-PL.M the-these.PL all ‘I am reading all of these interesting books.’ Pronouns Pronouns in Hebrew do vary by person, number, gender, and case. When the entities referred to are both masculine and feminine the masculine forms are used. I believe that pronouns do have the same distribution as full NPs in Hebrew, but this is something I have to think about some more to make sure. But see the note below the nominative personal pronoun paradigm. I am presenting the full nominative personal pronoun paradigm here. A sample of the non-nominative paradigms is presented in the Case section. Nominative Personal Pronouns: #100 ani svwdnv-it b-awnibrsivh. I student-SG.F in.the-university ‘I am a student at the university.’ #99 ani svwdnv b-awnibrsivh. I student[SG.M] in.the-university ‘I am a student at the university.’ #102 at svwdnv-it b-awnibrsivh. you.SG.F student-SG.F in.the-university ‘You are a student at the university.’ #16 ath svwdnv b-awnibrsivh. you.SG.M student[SG.M] in.the-university ‘You are a student at the university.’ #108 hia svwdnv-it b-awnibrsivh. she student-SG.F in.the-university ‘She is a student at the university.’ #111 hwa svwdnv b-awnibrsivh. he student[SG.M] in.the-university ‘He is a student at the university.’ #48 anxnw svwdnv-iwt b-awnibrsivh. we student-PL.F in.the-university ‘We are students at the university.’ #47 anxnw svwdnv-im b-awnibrsivh. we student-PL.M in.the-university ‘We are students at the university.’ #104 atn svwdnv-iwt b-awnibrsivh. you.PL.F student-PL.F in.the-university ‘You are students at the university.’ #103 atm svwdnv-im b-awnibrsivh. you.PL.M student-PL.M in.the-university ‘You are students at the university.’ #110 hn svwdnv-iwt b-awnibrsivh. they.F student-PL.F in.the-university ‘They are students at the university.’ #109 hm svwdnv-im b-awnibrsivh. they.M student-PL.M in.the-university ‘They are students at the university.’ Note: Corresponding sentences for a non-pronominal NP would look as follows: #113 rxl svwdnv-it b-awnibrsivh. Rachel student-SG.F in.the-university ‘Rachel is a student at the university.’ #106 h-aeh h-zat svwdnv-it b-awnibrsivh. The-woman the-this student-SG.F in.the-university ‘This woman is a student at the university.’ or #112 rxl hia svwdnv-it b-awnibrsivh. Rachel she student-SG.F in.the-university ‘Rachel is a student at the university.’ #105 h-aeh h-zat hia svwdnv-it b-awnibrsivh. The-woman the-this she student-SG.F in.the-university ‘This woman is a student at the university.’ There are contexts in which the above sentence pairs are almost interchangeable respectively (note, however, that in some other missing copula constructions the pronoun is obligatory and in still others its presence or absence does make a difference in the meaning). On the other hand, #108 hia svwdnv-it b-awnibrsivh. she student-SG.F in.the-university ‘She is a student at the university.’ is different from: #107 hia hia svwdnv-it b-awnibrsivh. she she student-SG.F in.the-university ‘It is exactly her who is a student at the univeristy.’ I don’t think I want to cover any of this in my grammar because it is a very sticky topic. I am just presenting it here because you asked us to think of examples of differing distribution between pronouns and regular NPs, and this contrast occurred to me, but I don’t think you had quite that in mind. Or did you? The rest of the NP Hebrew does not require a determiner. Common nouns that are not preceded by the definiteness marker “ha” are indefinite. #39 ani qwrat spr myniin. I read:PRES.SG.F book-SG.M intreseting-SG.M ‘I am reading an interesting book.’ #8 ani qwrat spr-im myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F book-PL.M intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading interesting books.’ Though Hebrew does not have an equivalent to the indefinite article “a” (see above), it does have a definite marker, “ha”(or just “h” when transliterated), which means “the”, but its distribution is different from the distrubution of “the” in English, in that instead of occupying the specifier slot, it prefixes not only the head noun but its modifiers as well (see Agreement section below for examples). Since Hebrew does have a determiner slot inwo which other determiners fit, I will not refer to the “ha” as a determiner but as a definiteness marker. Shuly Wintner has a paper in which he analyzes “ha” as a definite article which attaches to indefinite (DEF-) nominal words (rather than phrases) and renders them DEF+. He proposes a Definiteness Lexical Rule which accomplishes this. More on this in a future write up. #90 ani qwrat at h-spr h-myniin. I read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book-SG.M the-intreseting-SG.M ‘I am reading the interesting book.’ #91 ani qwrat at h-spr-im h-myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book-PL.M the-intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading the interesting books.’ #96 h-spr-im h-ale myniin-im awt-i. the-books the-these interest-PL.M ACC.pronoun-1SG ‘These books interest me.’ Proper nouns are considered definite and their modifiers must carry the “ha” marker. The proper nouns themselves do not get marked with the “ha” marker as they are definite to begin with. However, the Hebrew equivalent of “The Mary I spoke to yesterday…” is legitimate to the same extent the English one is. Similarly “Pretty Rachel is reading a book” is OK in Hebrew but it means roughly “A pretty Rachel is reading a book.” And in the example below, the sentence can’t have one of the readings its parallel English sentence “The pretty Rachel is reading a book” has, namely, that there are several Rachels, and the pretty one is the one reading the book . Rather, it means what the English determinerless“Pretty Rachel is reading a book” means, which can possibly be paraphrased in English also as “Rachel the pretty is reading the book.”. In order for the sentence to have the one pretty Rachel among other Rachels meaning, the noun Rachel also has to be marked with the defniteness marker. #97 rxl h-iph qwra-t spr rachel the-pretty read:PRES-SG.F book ‘Pretty Rachel is reading a book.’ Personal pronouns are not preceded by the definiteness marker as they already are definite. #46 at qwra-t spr you:NOM.SG.F read:PRES-SG.F book ‘You are reading a book.’ #98 * h-at qwra-t spr the-you:SG.F read:PRES-SG.F book ‘You are reading a book.’ Demonstrative pronouns may be preceded by the definiteness marker “ha” as they must agree in definiteness with the noun they modify: #95 h-ildh h-hia qwra-t spr the-girl the-that.SG.F read:PRES-SG.F book ‘That girl is reading a book.’ In this case the word “hia” is a demostrative pronoun which functions as a modifier of the noun and not a personal pronoun, though it happens to have the same form as the corresponding personal pronoun “she”. Moreover, these demonstrative pronouns may occur alone to mean “that one” so the following is also OK: #93 h-hia qwra-t spr the-that.SG.F read:PRES-SG.F book ‘That one is reading a book.’ The definteness marker “ha” attaches to the word it is the definite marker of (I don’t know yet whether it’s a prefix or a clitic or something else). It doesn’t occur independently. #92 * h spr-im h-ale myniin-im awt-i. the books the-these interest-PL.M ACC.pronoun-1SG ‘These books interest me.’ Some one-letter prepositions in Hebrew (as well as some other particles) attach to the word they precede (again, I will punt for now as to their being clitics or not). When the “ha” follows such a one-letter preposition, it “disappears” in dotless writiting but its presence is apparent in the pronunciation of the preposition. h-ildh emh at h-spr b-arwn the-girl put:PAST.SG.F ACC the-book in-closet ‘The girl put the book in a closet.’ Here the PP “b-arwn” is pronounced “b-aron” #94 h-ildh emh at h-spr b-arwn the-girl put:PAST.SG.F ACC the-book in.the-closet ‘The girl put the book in a closet.’ Here the PP “b-arwn” is pronounced “ba-aron”, the “ba” is actually b+ha In this it is impossible to distinguish the two without the dots. Other examples with a disambiguitating modifier to the noun could be added. Determiners: Determiners (other than “ha”, which I will not treat as a determiner) appear to behave more similarly to their English counterparts in that they appear only once and necessarily before the head noun. #40 ani qwrat at kl h-spr-im h-myniin-im I read:PRES.SG.F ACC all the-book-PL.M the-intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading all the interesting books.’ But there are complications here too. It seems that at least some determiners that may act as the specifiers of definite nominal phrases may not act as the specifiers of indefinite nominal phrases. #45 * ani qwrat kl spr-im myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F all book-PL.M intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading all interesting books.’ When the determiner is a numeral it must appear in its dependent form when preceding a definite nominal and in its independent form when preceding an indefinite nominal. #115 ani qwrat at eet h-spr-im h-myniin-im I read:PRES.SG.F ACC six.M.DEP the-book-PL.M the-intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading the six interesting books.’ #44 * ani qwrat eet spr-im myniin-im I read:PRES.SG.F six.M.DEP book-PL.M intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading six interesting books.’ #43 ani qwrat eeh spr-im myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F six.M.INDEP book-PL.M intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading six interesting books.’ This requires additional analysis. I will not cover other determiners right now. Argument optionality Hebrew is most likely closest to the third category: Subjects may be left unexpressed, but not other objects. Subjects may be dropped with some but not all verb forms. The reason I hesitate to state that unequivocally, is that it seems to me that other arguments as well may be dropped in more circumstances than they can in English, though not as easily as subjects. There is no doubt that Hebrew exhibits subject Pro-drop so I will start with that data first: #36 ani qrati spr I read:PAST.1SG book ‘I read (past) a book.’ #59 qrati spr read:PAST.1SG book ‘I read (past) a book.’ In the past tense, verb forms vary according to person and number for the first and second persons. In these cases the subject is usually omitted (though it may be retained for emphasis). In cases in which the subject is in the third person (the verb form is unambiguous as to person, number, and gender in the past tense third person forms), the subject may be omitted only in an appropriate context, that is, when the referent is clear. Similarly, in present tense forms, the verb form is ambiguous as to person and the subject may be dropped only in an appropriate context, that is, when the referent is clear. #50 ani qwrat spr I read:PRES. SG.F book ‘I am reading a book.’ #58 qwrat spr read:PRES. SG.F book ‘I/you/she am/are/is reading a book.’ The latter is not ungrammatical in and of itself, but it is unacceptable out of context in a way that sentences with a first or second past tense verb form aren’t. Note that though I indicated in my e-post that the non-Pro-drop cases are OK as examples of ellipsis just like their English counterparts, I realize now that that statement was too narrow, in that the they are less restricted than their English counterparts. Still, I think that to keep matters simple for now I will only deem the true Pro-drops as acceptable. Here are some additional examples of legitimate subjectless constructions, which I will probably not attempt to tackle, at least initially. In some of the following constructions the subject is obligatorily absent or else the sentence has an entirely different meaning. #53 hw hskim ym h-hnhlh yl pivwr h-ywbd-im he agree:PAST.HIFIL.3SG.M with the-management on laying_off.dep the-worker-PL.M ‘He agreed with management to the laying off of the workers.’ #55 hwskm yl pivwr h-ywbd-im agree:PAST.HUFAL.3SG.M on laying_off.DEP the-worker-PL.M ‘The laying off of the workers was agreed upon.’ #52 b-sprih la mdbr-im in.the-library neg talk:PRES.PL.M ‘One shouldn’t talk in the libabry.’ Or ‘It is inappropriate to talk in the library.’ #51 b-sprih hm la mdbr-im in.the-library they.M neg talk:PRES.PL.M ‘They do not talk in the library.’ #56 la ql llmwd ybrit neg easy learn.INF Hebrew ‘It is not easy to learn Hebrew.’ #58 qr b-xwc cold in.the-outside ‘It is cold outside.’ #57 zh qr b-xwc this cold in.the-outside ‘This is cold (when it is) outside.’ #60 hw qr b-xwc he/it cold in.the-outside ‘It (i.e. this thing or this person) is cold (when it is) outside.’ Other missing arguments: In Hebrew in lieu of the auxiliary “do”, the main verb is used in elliptical constructions. I won’t handle these for now. h-am hwa ntn lh at h-spr ? ntn the-if he give:PAST.3SG.M to.her ACC the-book ? give:PAST.3SG.M ‘Did he give her the book? He did.’ hia rcth llbwe simlh abl la lbeh she want:PRES.SG.F wear:INF dress but neg wear:PAST.SG.F ‘She wanted to wear a dress but didn’t.’ In colloquial speech it is possible to omit some non-subject arguments in the imperative: #62 tn! give:IMP ‘Give!’ #61 eim! Put:IMP ‘Put!’ Agreement In Hebrew the subject agrees with the finite verb in person, number, and gender, though not all three features are relevant to all the verb forms. #22 h-ild qwra spr the-boy:SG.M read:PRES.SG.M book ‘The boy is reading a book.’ #26 h-ildh qwra-t spr the-girl:SG read:PRES-SG.F book ‘The girl is reading a book.’ #28 h-ild-im qwra-im spr the-boy:PL read:PRES-PL.M book ‘The boys are reading a book.’ #31 h-ild-wt qwra-wt spr the-girl:PL read:PRES-PL.F book ‘The girls are reading a book.’ #29 h-ild-wt qra-w spr the-girl:PL read:PAST-3PL book ‘The girls read a book.’ #27 h-ild-im qra-w spr the-boy:PL read:PAST-3PL book ‘The boys read a book.’ #36 ani qra-ti spr I read:PAST-1SG book ‘I read a book.’ #10 anxnw qra-nw spr we read:PAST-1PL book ‘We read a book.’ #12 at qra-t spr you:SG.F read:PAST-2SG.F book ‘You read a book.’ #12 ata qra-t spr you:SG.M read:PAST-2SG.M book ‘You read a book.’ There is no way to tell the above two sentences apart without the dots. They are pronounced differently. #18 atm qra-tm spr you:PL.M read:PAST-2PL.M book ‘You read a book.’ #21 atn qra-tn spr you:PL.F read:PAST-2PL.F book ‘You read a book.’ #33 hm qra-w spr they:M read:PAST-3PL book ‘They read a book.’ #35 hn qra-w spr they:F read:PAST-3PL book ‘They read a book.’ #25 * h-ildh qwra spr the-girl:SG read:PRES.SG.M book ‘The girl is reading a book.’ #30 * h-ild-wt qwra-t spr the-girl:PL read:PRES-SG.F book ‘The girls is reading a book.’ #6 * ani qra-w spr I read:PAST-3PL book ‘I read a book.’ #11 * anxnw qra-w spr we read:PAST-3PL book ‘We read a book.’ #13 * at qra-w spr you:1SG.F read:PAST-3PL book ‘You read a book.’ #15 * ath qra-tm spr you:SG.M read:PAST-2PL.M book ‘You read a book.’ #19 * atm qra-tn spr you:PL.M read:PAST-2PL.F book ‘You read a book.’ #20 * atn qra-t spr you:PL.F read:PAST-2SG.F book ‘You read a book.’ #34 * hn qra-tn spr they:F read:PAST-2PL.F book ‘They read a book.’ #32 * hm qra-t spr they:M read:PAST-2SG.F book ‘You read a book.’ How about case? No. In Hebrew one can claim that there are more than two cases since prepositions attach to their NP complements and pronouns actually change form depending on the prepositions they combine with. Verbs select for specific prepositions. So one could claim that based on the evidence from pronouns (and the accusative case marker) that Hebrew has a case system that is less impoverished than that of English. Still none of these phenomena constitue case agreement between verbs and any of their arguments. Hebrew doesn’t exhibit agreement between verbs and arguments other than the subject. Within the NP Hebrew requires that the head noun agree with some of its modifiers in number, gender, and definiteness. Some of the modfiers the noun must agree with are adjectives and demonstrative pronouns. #39 ani qwrat spr myniin. I read:PRES.SG.F book-SG.M intreseting-SG.M ‘I am reading an interesting book.’ #8 ani qwrat spr-im myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F book-PL.M intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading interesting books.’ #7 * ani qwrat spr myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F book-SG.M intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading an interesting book.’ #142 * ani qwrat spr myniin-t. I read:PRES.SG.F book-SG.M intreseting-SG.F ‘I am reading an interesting book.’ #49 * ani qwrat spr-im h-myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F book-PL.M the-intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading interesting books.’ #38 ani qwrat at h-spr h-zh. I read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book-SG.M h-this.SG.M ‘I am reading this book.’ #37 * ani qwrat at h-spr h-zat. I read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book-SG.M h-this.SG.F ‘I am reading this book.’ #23 h-ildh h-iph w-h-nyimh qwra-t spr the-girl:SG.F the-pretty:SG.F and-the-pleasant:SG.F read-PRES.SG.F book:SG.M ‘The pretty and pleasant girl is reading a book.’ #24 * h-ildh h-iph w- nyimh qwra-t spr the-girl:SG.F the-pretty:SG.F and- pleasant:SG.F read-PRES.SG.F book:SG.M ‘The pretty and pleasant girl is reading a book.’ In addition the noun must agree with its determiner in number and gender (and possibly in definiteness depending on our analysis of determiners). #43 ani qwrat eeh spr-im myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F six:M.INDEP book-PL.M intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading six interesting books.’ #42 ani qwrat ee xwbr-wt myniin-wt. I read:PRES.SG.F six:F.INDEP book-PL.F intreseting-PL.F ‘I am reading six interesting booklets.’ #41 * ani qwrat ee spr-im myniin-im. I read:PRES.SG.F six:F.INDEP book-PL.M intreseting-PL.M ‘I am reading six interesting books.’ Case Hebrew has a case system that is similar in its poverty to that of English. Only pronouns decline, and there is no universal agreement in the literature that even they do. For the time being I will assume that the notion of case is relevant to Hebrew and will label the data accordingly. The number of cases is at least two and, depending on the analysis of prepositions, three or quite a few (one for every preposition in the language). The pattern is nominative-accusative in that the subjects of transitive and intransitive verbs have the same form (nominative without any marker). The direct objects of transitive verbs are analyzed as having accusative case (though in the case of indefinite nouns there is no marking of case). Direct object NPs when definite must be preceded by the accusative marker “at”. I have labeled this marker ACC, following some of the literature, but this is by no means the only label it carries in the literature. Some papers refer to it as the direct object marker or the definite direct object marker, some label it OM, and still others analyze it as a preposition. #63 ani qwrat at h-spr. pronoun:NOM:SG.F read:PRES.SG.F ACC the-book:3SG.M ‘I am reading the book’ When the direct object is a personal pronoun, the “at” marker is incorporated into the pronoun. #67 ani qwrat awtw. pronoun:NOM:SG.F read:PRES.SG.F pronoun:ACC.3SG.M ‘I am reading it.’ #64 ani qwrat awth. pronoun:NOM:SG.F read:PRES.SG.F pronoun:ACC.3SG.F ‘I am reading it.’ #65 ani qwrat awtm. pronoun:NOM:SG.F read:PRES.SG.F pronoun:ACC.3PL.M ‘I am reading them.’ #66 ani qwrat awtn. pronoun:NOM:SG.F read:PRES.SG.F pronoun:ACC.PL.F ‘I am reading them.’ #68 at rwah awti. pronoun:NOM:SG.F see:PRES.SG.F pronoun:ACC.1SG ‘You see me.’ #69 ath rwah awtnw. pronoun:NOM:SG.M see:PRES.SG.M pronoun:ACC.1PL ‘You see us.’ #70 atm rwa-im awtn. pronoun:NOM:PL.M see:PRES-PL.M pronoun:ACC.3PL.F ‘You see them.’ #71 atn rwa-wt awtn. pronoun:NOM:PL.F see:PRES-PL.F pronoun:ACC.3PL.F ‘You see them.’ #84 hn rwa-wt awtk. pronoun:NOM:PL.F see:PRES-PL.F pronoun:ACC.2SG.F ‘They see you.’ #84 hn rwa-wt awtk. pronoun:NOM:PL.F see:PRES-PL.F pronoun:ACC.2SG.M ‘They see you.’ #80 hn rwa-wt atkn. pronoun:NOM:PL.F see:PRES-PL.F pronoun:ACC.2PL.F ‘They see you.’ #79 hn rwa-wt atkm. pronoun:NOM:PL.F see:PRES-PL.F pronoun:ACC.2PL.M ‘They see you.’ #81 * hn rwa-wt atm. pronoun:NOM:PL.F see:PRES-PL.F pronoun:NOM.2PL.M ‘They see you.’ Prepositions: #89 h-ildh ntnh at h-spr l-ild the-girl give.PAST.SG.F ACC the-book to.the-boy ‘The girl gave the book to the boy.’ #128 h-ildh emh yl h-ewlxn at h-spr the-girl put:PAST.SG.F on the-table ACC the-book ‘The girl put the book on the table.’ When the presonal pronoun is the complement of a preposition, the preposition is always incorporated into the pronoun (even when the presposition is a free standing one when combining with nouns). #89 h-ildh ntnh at h-spr l-w the-girl give.PAST.SG.F ACC the-book to-pronoun.3SG.M ‘The girl gave the book to him.’ #77 h-ildh ntnh at h-spr l-nw the-girl give.PAST.SG.F ACC the-book to-pronoun.1PL ‘The girl gave the book to us.’ #75 h-ildh ntnh at h-spr l-hm the-girl give.PAST.SG.F ACC the-book to-pronoun.3PL.M ‘The girl gave the book to them.’ #76 h-ildh ntnh at h-spr l-i the-girl give.PAST.SG.F ACC the-book to-pronoun.1SG ‘The girl gave the book to me.’ #74 h-ildh emh yl-iw at h-spr the-girl put:PAST.SG.F on-pronoun:3SG.M ACC the-book ‘The girl put the book on him/it.’ #72 h-ildh emh b-w at h-spr the-girl put:PAST.SG.F in-pronoun:3SG.M ACC the-book ‘The girl put the book in him/it.’ #73 h-ildh emh yl-i at h-spr the-girl put:PAST.SG.F on-pronoun:1SG ACC the-book ‘The girl put the book on me.’ Transliteration: a ? b ? g ? d ? h ? w ? z ? x ? v ? i ? k ? l ? m ? n ? s ? y ? p ? c ? q ? r ? e ? t ? Hebrew also uses 5 final characters that are used in lieu of their non-final counterparts at the end of a word, as follows: Roman Final Non-final k ? ? m ? ? n ? ? p ? ? c ? ? For the purposes of this project, the final character will be mapped to the same Roman character its non-final counterpart maps to. So for example, the character “p” represents here both the Hebrew letter “?” and the final letter “?“.The latter has to be used when it appears in word final position, the former appears everywhere else in the word. This makes the transliterated material easier to read as it minimizes the number of phonologically unintuitive mappings, and all the examples I will use will be such that using the same Roman character for the final and non-final Hebrew counterparts will not result in any loss of information. In real life, in the vast majority of cases indeed this strategy will not result in any loss of information since the Hebrew non-final and final letter pairs are in complementary distribution to each other. If we wanted to transliterate our Roman characters back to Hebrew, there would be a rule that would map all word final occurrences of “p” to the final character “?“ and all other occurrences of “p” to the non-final character “?”. So a word transliterated as “kwp”, transliterated back to Hebrew would be written as??? rather than ??? while a word transliterated as “pil” would be transliterated back to Hebrew as ??? rather than ??? . However, in real life, this strategy will not work 100%. Here is why. In Hebrew the same character, “? “, represents the sounds “p” and “f”. The pronunciation of the letter depends on its position in the word. While the non-final “?” is sometimes pronounced as “p” and sometimes as “f”, the final “?“ is always pronounced as “f”. No Hebrew word ends with the “p” sound so this makes sense. So if we have a word transliterated as “kwp” it would be pronounced as either “kof” or “kuf” but never “kop” or “kup”. However, this assumption cannot be maintained with foreign words. Since some foreign words do end with a “p” sound and since the final “?“ is pronounced as an “f”, these foreign words are spelled with the rnon-final “?”. For example, the foreign name “Philip” would be rendered in Hebrew as ?????. The non-final ? in this case represents the initial “f” sound as well as the final “p” sound. This word is not spelled ????? because such a spelling would mean that the name is to be pronounced as “Filif” or “Pilif” but not “Filip”. It is customary to spell such foreign words and acronyms ending with a “p” with the non-final charcater. So using the same character to transliterate the final and non-final characters as “p” would result in a loss in this case as the word “pilip” when transliterated back to Hebrew would be rendered as ????? as every word final occurrence of a “p” is to be transliterated back to Hebrew as ? So why do I chose to use the same characters for the final and non-final characters? The transliteration is not that easy to read. Adding another 5 charcaters that are phonologically unrelated to the underlying Hebrew sounds would make my reading of the transliterations even harder. The real solution to this problem is to move to a unicode representation that would allow us to also view the original Hebrew characters. But in the absence of that possibility I prefer to simply avoid examples which do not contain foreign words ending with characters for which the notation would make a difference. Another solution would be to add a phonological representation line, but that has its own drawbacks implementation-wise which I won’t get into now. Inflection: Assuming an undotted text, the visible inflection is as follows.