\documentclass[a4paper]{article} \usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref} \usepackage[top=2cm]{geometry} \usepackage[font=small]{caption} \usepackage{handouts} \usepackage{polyglossia} \setdefaultlanguage{british} \setotherlanguage{hebrew} \newfontfamily\dutchfont[Mapping=tex-text]{Latin Modern Roman} \newfontfamily\hebrewfont[Scale=MatchLowercase]{Ezra SIL} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\ez}{\hebrewfont} \usepackage{stfloats} \usepackage{subcaption} \usepackage{enumitem} \title{\Large Handout of ``The niphal in Hebrew''\footnote{In Keith N. Gr\"uneberg, \emph{Abraham, Blessing and the Nations} (2003).}} \author{Camil Staps} \begin{document} \maketitle %Under consideration is Gn.~12:3, \ez{הָאֲדָמָֽה מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת כֹּ֖ל בְךָ֔ \textcolor{red}{נִבְרְכ֣וּ}וְ אָאֹ֑ר וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖ מְבָ֣רְכֶ֔יךָ וַאֲבָֽרֲכָה֙}. %The niphal can be interpreted as passive (`be blessed'), middle (`find blessing') or reflexive (`bless themselves')% % \pagenr{2a}. In the discussion about passive, middle and reflexive we distinguish the \term{morphological} level, the \term{semantic} level% \note{reflexive in case of coreference of the semantic roles; but for middles, a common property is yet to be found; passives cannot be defined semantically as they correspond to an active sharing all semantic properties} and the \term{relational} level% \note{a use being relationally [reflexive] iff it expresses exactly the same action as the corresponding active --- this is more restrictive than the semantic level}% \pagenrs{3b--5a\footnote{Page numbers refer to the PDF, with `a' the left page and `b' the right page.}}. Uses that were originally relationally [reflexive] may cease to be so due to semantic shift\pagenr{5a}. The niphal expresses subject affectedness\pagenr{6b}, but may still have different nuances\pagenr{7a}. It may not be sharply distinguished from other stems, and two stems may be complementary (i.e., there may exist correlation between stem and tense)\pagenr{7b}. From particular instances we learn that the middle niphal may express actions typically performed for \emph{one's own benefit}\pagenr{8a} and typically \emph{reciprocal} actions\pagenr{8b}\note{though seemingly only for particular verbs}. It seems that \emph{grooming} actions are very rarely middle-marked\pagenr{9a}. Furthermore, many niphals are \emph{self-move} middles% \footnote{This section seems to only reiterate parts of S.W. Boyd, \emph{A synchronic analysis of the medio-passive-reflexive in Biblical Hebrew}, 1993.}% \pagenr{9b}; related to this, verbs of \emph{separation}, \emph{hiding} and \emph{body posture} frequently occur in the niphal\pagenr{10a}. The niphal is used for verbs of \emph{gathering} --- different from self-move middles in that they require two participants and relate to Initiator--Addressee actives rather than Agent--Patient ones. However, they are middles in various languages and can be grouped as such\pagenr{10b}. A further use of the niphal is to denote spontaneous events\pagenr{11a}. Niphals of intransitive qals may be inchoative from qal\note{`become holy'}, passive of piel\note{`be treated as holy'} or reflexive of piel\note{`make oneself treated as holy'}\pagenr{11b}. Finally, the niphal is used for verbs of appearing\pagenr{12a}, emotion and commitment\pagenr{12b}. The niphal probably wasn't passive originally% \note{qal, piel and hiphil have internal passives and unlike those, the niphal has an imperative}, but still has passive force for all stages that we have evidence for\pagenr{13a}. It is marked by subject deletion or demotion\parnote{, but differs from the self-move middle in that the Patient of the corresponding active remains a Patient (rather than becoming an Actor)}\pagenr{14a}. There are very few semantically direct reflexive niphals% \note{many instances considered reflexive can be seen as middle or passive by the above categories}\pagenr{16a}. In those few cases, it would be directly clear to the reader that it is\pagenr{17b}. Hence\plainIdea{, but the author of the handout is generalising from the particular instance in Gn.~12:3 under consideration here}, instances that \emph{can} be read as middle or passive should not be read as reflexive. \end{document}