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In:Language Contact, Continuity and Change in the Genesis of Modern Hebrew
Edited by Edit Doron, Malka Rappaport Hovav, Yael Reshef and Moshe Taube
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 256] 2019
► pp. 143–178

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The change in Hebrew from a V-framed to an S-framed Language

 | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Published online: 18 September 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.256.06rap
The paper discusses a change in the typological profile of Hebrew in terms of lexicalization patterns. These patterns concern the way in which the conceptual components of event descriptions of motion or change are distributed across morpho-syntactic categories when they include in addition in addition a specification of manner in the same nuclear clause. V-framed languages require the verb to express the motion or change, and manner, if expressed, must be expressed otherwise. S-framed languages allow the verb to express the manner and the motion or change to be expressed by a satellite such as a prepositional phrase. Biblical Hebrew is shown to have properties of V-framed languages, while Modern Hebrew shows properties of S-framed languages. The article shows that Hebrew first developed a locative/directional distinction, allowing manner verbs of a variety of sorts to appear with directional phrases. More recently, constructions with non-subcategorized objects have begun to appear. The article shows that these constructions developed from reanalyses of Classical Hebrew collocations.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Complex motion event descriptions – A typology
  • 3.Factors contributing to V- and S-framedness
    • 3.1Lexical factors
    • 3.2Compositional factors
  • 4.Biblical Hebrew
    • 4.1Lexical factors
    • 4.2Compositional factors
  • 5.Modern Hebrew
    • 5.1Lexical factors
    • 5.2Compositional factors
  • 6.Further S-framed properties in MH
  • 7.Historical development
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
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