THE SYNTACTIC FUNCTION OF NEGATIVE PARTICLES IN BIBLICAL HEBREW AND ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATIONS

This article examines cases in which the Biblical Hebrew particles aleph(sic) and (sic)aleph exhibit an independent syntactic status by expressing only negation. This type of negation is not accompanied by any supplementary existential meaning, and it conveys the negation as the main focus of a clause. An independent syntactic status of the negative particles is mostly revealed in one-member and elliptical clauses. The elliptical or one-member clauses that contain only a negative particle should be considered predicates in a functional sense. Like Biblical Hebrew, English usually employs for these constructions elliptical or one-member clauses that present only the negative particle "no," and in older stages of English also "nay." Other infrequent constructions in which sole negation is put in a predicative status in Biblical Hebrew are aleph(sic)Pi aleph(sic) Jer 5: 12), and (sic)(sic)aleph(sic) (Gen 48: 18, Exod 10: 11).