The special status of nif'al in Hebrew

Schwarzwald, Ora R.

doi:10.1075/la.134.03the

In:Current Issues in Generative Hebrew Linguistics
Edited by Sharon Armon-Lotem, Gabi Danon and Susan Rothstein
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 134] 2008
► pp. 61–76

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The special status of nif'al in Hebrew

Ora R. Schwarzwald | Department of Hebrew and Semitic Languages, Bar Ilan University

Published online: 19 December 2008

https://doi.org/10.1075/la.134.03the

The paper examines the special morphological and semantic features of nifal and shows that its semantic complexity matches its morphology: its basic template is composed of two distinct syllabic structures; its tense distribution is different from all the other templates and its conjugations resemble either the typical passive templates or the active and inchoative templates, depending on the tenses. From the semantic point of view, nifal shows a variety of meanings: passive, active, inchoative, reflexive, reciprocal, and sometimes some of its verbs are ambiguous like verbs in active templates. It also demonstrates special resemblance to hitpael. The unique status of nifal initially began as an historical development, but eventually, morphology led to the semantic ambiguity of the template.

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