The Morphology of Hebrew

By: Hidaya Moulay Omar

derivation in Hebrew

Nouns, adverbs,djectives

and prepositions can be derived in any of the following ways:

1. Root & Pattern combination

• b.l.t ~v.l.t + -a-a- = balat (stood out)

• b.l.t~v.l.t + hi--i-= hivlit (stressed)

2. concatenation of morphological components

1. Multi stem concatenation / compounding

bet(house)+séfer(book)=(school)basar(flesh)+va(and)+dam(blood)=human beingal(on)+yad(hand)=nearbeyt + ha-yetomim=house the-orphans

`orphanage`

2. concatenation of morphological components

2. Multi-stem blendingarafel(fog)+piah(smoke)=arpiah(smog)midraxa(sidewalk)+rehov(street)= midrehov (promenade)

2.concatenation of morphological components

• Acronyms:

• Sakin(knife)+kaf(spoon)+u-mazleg(fork)

=sakum (utensils)

Verb formation in Hebrew

• The verb system in Hebrew is very unique; a verb can take one of the verbal patterns, which are well structured, predictable and limitd in number.

• There are 09 verbal patterns in Hebrew.

Example:

Rootpast

3rd p sing masc

(XaXaX)

present3rd p sing

masc(XoXeX)

future3rd p sing masc(yiXXoX/yiXXaX)

K.L.T(absorb) kalat kolet yiklo

t

l.m.d(study) lamad lomed yilma

d

In a nutshell, Hebrew word formation processes, like other semitic languages, are mainly based on root/pattern combination. Then, inflectional morphemes are added

compounds in Hebrew are usually non-

compositional, it is hard to predict the

meaning from the compound constituents'

meanings.

Inflections in

Hebrew

• Hebrew inflectional categories are gender,

number and possesion in nouns

• In addition to tense, mood and person in

verbs.

Examples

the plural of masculin nouns is usually formed by adding the suffix "im"

mahshev ~ mahshevim (computers)

the plural of feminine nouns is usually formed by adding the suffix "ot"

mita~mitot (beds)

yet, there are exceptions; the plural of some feminine nouns is formed

by the suffix "im" and vice versa.

or, there is a suppletive stem for singular & plural

• av (M) =avot (*avim)• yom (f) =yamim (days)• iŠa (f) = naŠim (women)

• for loan words, the suffixes are regular, yet the stress pattern is irregular

banána=banánot ~not bananót

The dual suffix

Example: dual suffix (ay(i)m) The dual number is restricted to time units (weeks,

months, etc), symmetrical parts of the body (eyes, hands, legs, etc), and garments and articles that come in pairs (socks, trousers, glasses, etc)

• oznáyim ("ears")   אוזניים → ózen ("ear")   אוזן• naʿaláyim ("shoes")   נעלים → náʿal ("shoe")   נעל• → yom ("day")   יֹום ִייים ַמ� yomáyim ("two days")   יֹוִי�ים ָיי shəlosha yamim ("three days")   שלֹושה

`ayim` appears to be inflectional because:

It is obligatory for certain nouns like:shamaym ('skies'), mitsraym ('Egypt'), maym

('waters').There is an agreement relationship

between the noun and the adjective in terms of number and definitness.

Clitics in Hebrew

• most prepositions and conjunctions are clitics

• the letter bet /b-/ is a proclitic, which is used as a proposition meaning in ,at or with

Example:Ani babinyan = I am in the building

Reference:

• Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald• Three Related Analyses in Modern

Hebrew Morphology

Thank you