Chapter published in:
Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew: Background, Morpho-lexicon, and Syntax
Edited by Ruth A. Berman
[Studies in Language Companion Series 210] 2020
► pp. 375–418

Nominalizations

| Tel Aviv University
The chapter details structural and usage-based properties of three types of verb shifts to nouns in MH: Action Nominals. Gerunds, and Infinitives. It starts by specifying morphological and syntactic criteria for these three constructions as nominalizations: They are fully productive grammatical systems; directly associated with verb binyan patterns; and alternate syntactically with their verbal source-forms, so often paraphrasable by tensed subordinate clauses. These criteria mean that several other classes of verb-related nouns are excluded from discussion, including: adjective-based stative nominals, nouns derived by syntactic conversion from benoni ‘intermediate’ participial cum present–tense verbs, and other classes of verb-derived nouns denoting Disease, Collective, Location, etc. The chapter characterizes (i) abstract Action Nominals, i.e., šmot^ peula ‘names:cs action’ = nouns/names of an action, activity, act’ (e.g., from the b1verb haras ‘destroy’, harisa ‘destruction, destroying’ ~ héres ‘destruction’) and two constructions both termed šem^ póal ‘name:cs verb = the noun/name of a verb’ in the form of (ii) Gerunds (e.g., be-hors-o ‘in-destroying-his = on his destroying [something]’) and (iii) Infinitives (e.g., la-haros ‘to-destroy’). The relatively recent Action Nominals are highly productive, although largely confined to more formal registers of usage, classical Gerunds are restricted to syntactically bound constructions and are relatively rare in current usage, while Infinitives are pervasive at all levels of usage, displaying a broad range of functions in the absence of other, less widely occurrent, non-finite verbs. The chapter concludes by comparing the three constructions analyzed in relation to more general features of MH structure and use.
Published online: 18 March 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.210.12ber
References

References

Aksu-Koç, Ayhan & von Stutterheim, Christiane
1994 Temporal relations in narrative: Simultaneity. In Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study, Ruth A. Berman & Dan Isaac Slobin (eds), 393–456. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Muňoz Molina, Antonio
2017 kcel natuy (Like a Fading Shadow), Lia Nirgad (trans.). Tel Aviv: Modan Publishing House. (Original work published 2014)Google Scholar
Ariel, Mira
1998 The linguistic status of the “here and now.” Cognitive Linguistics 9(3): 189–238. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2016 What’s a distinct or alternative? Journal of Pragmatics 103: 1–14.Google Scholar
Avinery, Issac
1946 kibušey haʕivrit bedorenu (The Achievements of Modern Hebrew). Merchavia: Sifriyat Hapoalim.Google Scholar
Azar, Moshe
1977 šetaħ wʕomeq btaħbir (Surface and Depth in Syntax). Haifa: Haifa University Press.Google Scholar
Ben-Asher, Moshe
1967 ʕal šem hapʕulah bʕivrit (The nomen actionis in Hebrew). Leshonenu La’am 18(4–5): 105–120.Google Scholar
1972 ʕiyunim btaħbir haʕivrit haħadašah (Essays on the syntax of Modern Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad.Google Scholar
1976 šimušey hamaqor wšem hapʕulah bilšon hamiqraʔ lʕumat lšon yameynu (On the infinitive and nomen actionis in Biblical and Modern Hebrew). In kilšon ʕamo: Studies in Applied Linguistics, Chaim Rabin, Ben-Zion Fischler & Raphael Nir (eds) 23–35. Jerusalem: Council on the Teaching of Hebrew.Google Scholar
Bendavid, Abba
1956 šem hapʕulah umašmaʕuyotaw (The meanings of nomen actionis in Hebrew). Leshonenu La’am 6(4, 6, 8), 7(1, 3, 4).Google Scholar
Ben-Hayyim, Ze’ev
1953 lašon ʕatiqah bimciʔut ħadašah (An ancient language in a new reality). Leshonenu La’am 4: 36–85.Google Scholar
1992 bmilħamtah šel lašon (The Struggle for a Language). Jerusalem: Academy of the Hebrew Language.Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A.
In press. From pre-grammaticality to proficiency in L1: Acquiring and developing infinitive verbs in Hebrew. Psychology of Language and Communication.
1973 hašemot hapoʕaliyim baʕivrit haħadašah (Verbal Nouns in Modern Hebrew). PhD dissertation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
1978a Modern Hebrew Structure. Tel Aviv: University Publishing Projects.Google Scholar
1978b What’s it, this, that all about? On the Nonreferentiality of Hebrew ze. Ms.
1980a On the category of auxiliary in Modern Hebrew. Hebrew Annual Review 4: 15–37.Google Scholar
1980b The case of an (S)VO language: Subjectless constructions in Modern Hebrew. Language 56(4): 759–776. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1985 The acquisition of Hebrew. In The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, Vol. 1, Dan Isaac Slobin (ed.), 255–371. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
1986 Repetition and Recurrence in Modern Hebrew. Ms, Tel Aviv University and University of California at Berkeley.
1988a On the ability to relate events in narratives. Discourse Processes 11(4): 469–497. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1988b Productivity in the lexicon: New-word formation in Modern Hebrew. Folia Linguistica 21(2–4): 425–461.Google Scholar
1993a Crosslinguistic perspectives on native language acquisition. In Progression and Regression in Language: Sociocultural, Neuro-psychological, and Linguistic Perspectives, Kenneth Hyltenstam & Ake Viberg (eds), 245–266. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
1993b Developmental perspectives on transitivity: A confluence of cues. In Other Children, Other Languages: Issues in the Theory of Acquisition, Yonata Levy (ed.), 189–241. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
1996 Form and function in developing narrative abilities: The case of ‘and.’ In Social Interaction, Social Context, and Language: Essays in Honor of Susan Ervin-Tripp, Dan Isaac Slobin, Julie Gerhardt, Amy Kyratzis & Jiansheng Guo (eds), 343–367. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
1999 Children’s innovative verbs vs. nouns: Structured elicitations and spontaneous coinages. In Methods for Studying Language Production, Lise Menn & Nan Bernstein Ratner (eds), 69–93. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
2001 Setting the narrative scene: How children begin to tell a story. In Children’s Language, Vol. 10, Keith E. Nelson, Ayhan Aksu-Koç & Carolyn E. Johnson & (eds), 1–31. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
2004 Between emergence and mastery: The long developmental route of language acquisition. In Language Development across Childhood and Adolescence [Trends in Language Acquisition Research 3], Ruth A. Berman (ed.), 9–34. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2008 The psycholinguistics of developing text construction. Journal of Child Language 35(4): 735–771. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 Revisiting impersonal constructions in Hebrew: Discourse-based perspectives. In The Typology of Impersonal Constructions [Studies in Language Companion Series 124], Andrej Malchukov & A. Siewierska (eds), 323–355. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2013 Noun phrase constructions. In Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, Vol. 4, Geoffrey Khan (ed.), 894–899. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
2014a Acquiring and expressing temporality in Hebrew: A T/(M/A) Language. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 11(2): 2–29.Google Scholar
2016 Typology, acquisition, and development: The view from Israeli Hebrew. In Acquisition and Development of Hebrew: From Infancy to Adolescence [Trends in Language Acquisition Research 19], Ruth A. Berman (ed.), 1–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2017 Word class distinctiveness versus polycategoriality in Modern Hebrew: Psycholinguistic perspectives. In Lexical Polycategoriality: Cross-linguistic, Cross-theoretical, and Language Acquisition Approaches [Studies in Language Companion Series 182], Valentina Vapnarsky & Edy Veneziano (eds), 343–376. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2018 From pre-grammaticality to proficiency in L1: Acquiring and developing Hebrew infinitives. Psychology of Language and Communication 22(1): 557–580Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A., Hecht, Barbara F. & Clark, Eve V.
1982 The acquisition of agent and instrument nouns in Hebrew. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 21: 16–24.Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A. & Neeman, Yonni
1994 Development of linguistic forms: Hebrew. In Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study, Ruth A. Berman & Dan Isaac Slobin (eds) 285–328. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A. & Nir, Bracha
2011 tiʔurey haʔofen baʕivrit haħadašah: rʔayot minituaħ teqstim (Manner adverbs in Modern Hebrew: Text-based evidence). Helkat Lashon 43–44: 178–200.Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A. & Sagi, Israel
1981 ʕal darxey tacurat-hamilim wħidušan bagil hacaʕir (Children’s word-formation and lexical innovations). Hebrew Computational Linguistics Bulletin 18: 31–62.Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A. & Seroussi, B.
2011 Derived nouns in Modern Hebrew: Structural and psycholinguistic perspectives. Rivista Di Linguistica 23(1): 105–125.Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A. & Slobin, Dan Isaac
1994 Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Berman, Ruth A. & Verhoeven, Ludo
2002 Developing text production abilities in speech and writing: Aims and methodology. Written Languages and Literacy 5(1): 1–44. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Blau, J.
1966 ysodot hataħbir [Essentials of Syntax]. Jerusalem: Israel Institute for Writing Education.Google Scholar
Bloom, Lois, Tackeff, Jo, & Lahey, Margaret
1984 Learning “to” in complement constructions. Journal of Child Language 11(2): 391–406. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bolozky, Shmuel & Schwarzwald, Ora Rodrigue
1992 On the derivation of Hebrew forms with the +ut suffix. Hebrew Studies 33(1): 51–69. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan L.
1985 Morphology: A Study of the Relation between Meaning and Form [Typological Studies in Language 9]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cahana-Amitay, Dalia & Ravid, Dorit
2000 Optional bound morphology in the development of text production. In BUCLD 24: Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Vol. 1, Catherine S. Howell, Sarah A. Fish & Thea Keith-Lucas (eds), 176–184. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace L.
1980 The Pear Stories: Cognitive, Cultural and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production, Vol. 3. Norwood NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam A.
1970 Remarks on nominalization. In Readings in English Transformational Grammar, Roderick A. Jacobs & Peter S. Rosenbaum (eds), 184–221. Waltham MA: Ginn & Co.Google Scholar
Chomsky, William
1957 Hebrew: The Eternal Language. Philadelphia PA: Jewish Publication Society of America.Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert H.
1996 Using Language. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Ohad
2013 The Verbal Tense System in Late Biblical Hebrew Prose [Harvard Semitic Studies 63]. Winona Lake IN: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard & Thompson, Sandra A.
2007 Lexical nominalization. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. 3, Timothy Shopen (ed.), 334–381. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dascal, Marcelo & Katriel, Tamar
1977 Between semantics and pragmatics: The two types of ‘but’ – Hebrew ‘aval’ and ‘ela.’ Theoretical Linguistics 4(1–3): 143–172.Google Scholar
Diessel, Holger
2004 The Acquisition of Complex Sentences. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Doron, Edit
2016 Language Contact and the Development of Modern Hebrew. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Dubnov, Keren
2015 Circumstantial versus depictive secondary predicates in literary Hebrew: The influence of Yiddish and Russian. In Language Contact and the Development of Modern Hebrew, Edit Doron (ed.), 76–88. Leiden: Brill. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nicholas
2007 Insubordination and its uses. In Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations, Irina Nikolaeva (ed.), 367–431. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas. & Watanabe, Honoré
2016 The dynamics of insubordination: An overview. In Insubordination , Nicholas Evans & Honoré Watanabe (eds), 1–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J.
1968 The case for case. In Universals in Linguistic Theory, Emmon Bach & Robert T. Harms (eds), 1–90. New York NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Givón, Tom
1977 The drift from VSO to SVO in Biblical Hebrew: The pragmatics of tense-aspect. In Mechanisms of Syntactic Change, Charles N. Li (ed.) 181–254. Austin TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
2009 The Genesis of Syntactic Complexity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Goldfajn, Tal
1998 Temporality and the Biblical Hebrew Verb. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Gordon, Ammon
1982 The development of the participle in Biblical, Mishnaic, and Modern Hebrew. Afroasiatic Linguistics 8(3): 121–178.Google Scholar
Halevy, Rivka
2000 tmurot bmaʕamadah uvtifqudah šel hasmixut haprudah bʕivrit šel yameynu (Functional changes of šel phrases in Contemporary Hebrew). Lešonenu 63(1–2): 61–80.Google Scholar
2006 tifqudah šel “zeh” habilti leqsiqalit bʕivrit bat yameynu (The function of nonlexical “ze” in Contemporary Hebrew). Lešonenu 68: 283–308.Google Scholar
2007 tifqudo hapragmati šel šem hapoʕal bʕivrit šel yameynu (Functions of infinitival forms in Modern Hebrew). Hebrew Linguistics 60: 63–80.Google Scholar
2013 Syntax of Modern Hebrew. In Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, Vol. 3, Geoffrey Khan (ed.), 707–722. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Hazout, Ilan
1994 The Hebrew pronoun ze and the syntax of sentential subjects. Lingua 93(4): 265–282. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hennessy, Pelin Engin & Givón, Tom
2002 Note on the grammar of Turkish nominalizations. In Complex Sentences in Grammar and Discourse: Essays in Honor of Sandra A. Thompson, Joan L. Bybee & Michael Noonan (eds), 125–144. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Jespersen, Otto
1922 Grammar: Its Nature, Development and Origin. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Kail, Michèle & Weissenborn, Jürgen
1984 A developmental cross-linguistic study of adversative connectives: French ‘mais’ and German ‘aber/sondern. ‘Journal of Child Language 11(1): 143–158. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Dafna & Berman, Ruth A.
2015 Developing linguistic flexibility across the school years. First Language 35(1): 27–53. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Laks, Lior & Berman, Ruth A. 2014b A new look at diglossia: Modality-driven distinctions between spoken and written narratives in Jordanian Arabic. In Handbook of Arabic Literacy: Insights and Perspectives [Literacy Studies 9], Elinor Saiegh-Haddad & R. Malatesha Joshi (eds) 241–254. New York NY: Springer Science Publications.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Christian
1988 Towards a typology of clause linkage. In Clause-combining in Grammar and Discourse, John Haiman & Sandra A. Thompson (eds), 181–225. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lustigman, Lyle
2012 Non-finiteness in early Hebrew verbs. Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics [BAAL] 4(1): 213–231. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Maschler, Yael
2018 The on-line emergence of Hebrew unsubordinate she- (‘that/which/who’) clauses: A usage-based perspective on so-called ‘subordination“.Studies in Language 42(3): 669–707.Google Scholar
Mor, Uri
In press. hamaqor hanatuy haprediqativi baʕivrit šel habayit hašeni (The predicative infinitive construct in Second Temple Hebrew). In Linguistic Change and Language Variability, Ruth A. Berman (ed.). Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Science and Humanities.
Or, Amir
2015 hamamlaxa (The Kingdom). Tel Aviv: HaKibbutz HaMeuchad.
Peretz, Yitzchak
1967 mišpat haziqah baʕivrit lxol tqufoteyah (The Relative Clause in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Dvir.Google Scholar
Rabin, Chaim
2000 The Development of the Syntax of Post-Biblical Hebrew. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Ravid, Dorit
1978 Word Formation Processes in Comprehension and Construction of Hebrew Nouns and Adjectives. MA thesis, Tel Aviv University.
1990 Internal structure constraints on new-word formation devices in Modern Hebrew. Folia Linguistica 24(3–4): 289–348.Google Scholar
1999 šmot hapʕulah baʕivrit haħadašah: ʕiyun morfologi (Derived nominals in Modern Hebrew: A morphological analysis). Hebrew Linguistics 45: 61–78.Google Scholar
2004 Derivational morphology revisited: Later lexical development in Hebrew. In Language Development across Childhood and Adolescence [Trends in Language Acquisition Research 3], Ruth A. Berman (ed.), 52–80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ravid, Dorit & Avidor, Avraham
1998 Acquisition of derived nominals in Hebrew: Developmental and linguistic principles. Journal of Child Language 25(2): 229–266. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ravid, Dorit, Bar-On, Amalia, Levie, Ronit & Douani, Odelia
2016 Hebrew adjective lexicons in developmental perspective. The Mental Lexicon 11(3): 401–428. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ravid, Dorit & Berman, Ruth A.
2010 Developing noun phrase complexity across adolescence: A text-embedded analysis. First Language 30(1): 1–29. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ravid, Dorit & Cahana-Amitay, Dalia
2005 Verbal and nominal expressions in narrating conflict situations in Hebrew. Journal of Pragmatics 37: 157–183. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ravid, Dorit & Shlesinger, Yitzchak
2000 Modern Hebrew adverbials: Between syntactic class and lexical category. In Between Grammar and Lexicon [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 183], Ellen Contini-Morava & Yishai Tobin (eds), 333–351. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Reshef, Yael
2012a tahalixey lašon btħum šem hapʕula: cohar lhitgabšut haʕivrit haħadašah (Linguistic processes in the field of action nouns: A window to the formation of Modern Hebrew). Lešonenu 74: 417–446.Google Scholar
2012b ʕal hastandartizaciyah šel šem hapʕulah baʕivrit haħadašah (On the standardization of the action nominal in Modern Hebrew). In Studies in Modern Hebrew and Jewish Languages: Ora R. Schwarzwald Jubilee Volume, Malka Muchnik & Tsvi Sadan (eds), 16–94. Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University Press.Google Scholar
Rosén, Haiim B.
1956 mfuʕal baʕivrit hayisraʔelit (mfuʕal in Israeli Hebrew). Lešonenu 20: 139–148.Google Scholar
1962 A Textbook of Israeli Hebrew. Chicago IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Ross, John Robert
1973 A fake NP squish. In New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English, Charles J. Bailey & Roger Shuy (eds), 97–139. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, Eliezer
1968 hamišpat hašemani: ʕiyunum btaħbir yameynu (The Nominal Sentence: A Study in the Syntax of Contemporary Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad.Google Scholar
Schiff, Rachel, Ravid, Dorit & Levy-Shimon, Sara
2011 Children’s command of plural and possessive marking on Hebrew nouns: A comparison of obligatory vs. optional inflections. Journal of Child Language 38: 433–454. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schwarzwald, Ora Rodrigue
2002 praqim bmorfologiyah ʕivrit (Studies in Hebrew Morphology), Vols. 1–12 study units. Tel Aviv: The Open University Press.Google Scholar
Segal, Moshe Zvi
1936 diqduq lšon hamišnah (Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Dvir.Google Scholar
Seroussi, Batia
2004 Hebrew derived nouns in context: A developmental perspective. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica 56(5): 273–290. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 The Morphology-Semantics Interface in the Mental Lexicon: The Case of Hebrew. PhD dissertation, Tel Aviv University.
Shatil, Nimrod
2014 Noun patterns and their vitality in Modern Hebrew. Hebrew Studies 55(1): 171–203. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Silverman, David
2006 Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analyzing Talk, Text and Interaction. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Slobin, Dan Isaac
1995 Converbs in Turkish child language: The grammaticalization of even coherence. In Converbs in Cross-linguistic Perspective: Structure and Meaning of Adverbial Verb Forms – Adverbial Participles, Gerunds , Martin Haspelmath & Ekkehard König (eds), 349–371. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Speer, Susan
2002 ‘Natural’ and ‘contrived’ data: A sustainable distinction? Discourse Studies 4: 511–526.Google Scholar