NOMINALIZATION IN BIBLICAL HEBREW

Egyptian grammar has the ability to treat entire sentences as nouns.1 Cyrus H. Gordon recognized this phenomenon in the Semitic languages and pro vided sample illustrations.2 present researcher has made a comprehen sive collection and classification of nominalization in the Masoretic Text.3 Nominalization in the Hebrew Bible will be shown to be a widespread phe nomenon. Prepositions, phrases, finite verbs, whole clauses, adverbs and particles are shown serving the function of nouns while maintaining their particular part-of-speech form. writer shows that the various syntactic elements need not appear in the recognized nominal form to be treated as nouns. No longer are isolated examples of facets of nominalization to be looked upon as discrete (or even anomalous) forms. This study establishes nominalization in Biblical Hebrew as a multi-faceted, pervasive linguistic phenomenon in Scriptures. construct-genitive relationship was a major key to the identification of nominalization but not the only one. Separate sections follow in which examples of verbs, prepositions, adverbs, phrases and various types of clauses functioning as nouns are recorded and discussed. A verbatim translation (VT) and a literary translation (LT) of each citation is provided to give prom inence to the phenomenon under study. prevalence of this phenomenon in its several forms throughout the Bible will be apparent. Nominalization of function, but not of form is a regular feature of Biblical Hebrew. I Nominalization of Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases general rule that th? construct state represents the government by one substantive of the immediately following substantive must be modified to admit cases of a preposition, or a prepositional phrase coming between the substantives. introduction of the preposition before the governed noun creates a prepositional phrase that is treated as one nominal unit. This entire compound unit is nominalized as the nomen rectum of the regens in the construct. Nominalization of prepositions and their phrases may be subsumed under the following headings: A. Phrases introduced by preformative prepositions Judg8:ll 0*VnM ^313 VT: (of) the-dwellers ? (of-) in-the-tents LT: of the tent The tent dwellers is so closely identified as a nominalized unit, a kind of compound noun, that the first word of the compound even has the definite article. This, however, is contrary to the general practice in construct com binations. construct noun is usually undetermined and the genitive car ries the definite article. identification of the two words as a single nominal unit also permitted it to serve as the compound genitive governed by the first noun in the construct, derekh way (of). Isa5:ll ?1*33 * *0 ? ? . lp?? *&?!>0 VT: early risers (of) in-the-morning. . .tarriers (of) in-the-night