OLD FORMS, NEW FUNCTIONS: QUADRILITERAL ROOT PATTERNS AS SOURCES OF VERBAL MEANING

This paper describes a process whereby morphological patterns that, in premodern
Hebrew, were not associated with a particular semantic profile, or were only partly
associated with such a profile, developed a particular meaning in Modern Hebrew.
This process is exemplified by certain types of quadriliteral roots formed in the
Hebrew verbal system.
Of eight quadriliteral root patterns productive in Modern Hebrew, three
developed meanings of their own: the pilpel pattern, which expresses a series of
short, atomic events; the piʿlel pattern, which describes a reduced or attenuated
event, and the šifʿel pattern, which conveys a restitutive or repetitive meaning, or
increase on scale. The pilpel pattern became associated with its meaning already
in Mishnaic Hebrew, and in Modern Hebrew the association became nearly
exclusive, whereas the other two patterns developed their typical meanings only in
Modern Hebrew itself.
This research shows that a quadriliteral root-pattern develops a particular
semantic profile only if it utilizes the derivational mechanism of direct rootexpansion
in the verbal system without the mediation of another lexical item.
Moreover, individual verbs coined in the pattern tend to be associated with that
meaning if they are derived in this manner. Pilpel verbs can convey the pattern’s
typical meaning even if they are derived by onomatopoeia or with the mediation of
noun, but only if the parent nominal form is biliteral.
The research also traced the development of patterns’ semantic profiles over
time. It was found that this development was conspicuously influenced by the
substrate and contact languages of Modern Hebrew, and that factors of reanalysis
and analogy were also at play.