From This to That: Transformation in Biblical Hebrew

There is a series of lexically resultative verbs in Biblical Hebrew that can indicate transformation in ditransitive syntactic structures. This paper analyzes the syntactic constraints that make explicit which object is the host and which object is the goal of the action. This paper also analyzes the semantic particularities of these verbs and several nouns which cluster in these constructions. The results of the paper are as follows. First, when present, a pronominal suffix on a verb or the particle always mark the host. Second, when prepositions are utilized in these constructions, there is a degree of flexibility in the word order because certain prepositions mark the host and others mark the goal. When prepositions are not utilized, the word order options are limited. Third, this article explains contexts in which the verbs are or are not interchangeable. Fourth, clarity is provided to some verses in the Hebrew Bible. Fifth, this article highlights nominals that are almost exclusively used as goal nouns in transformative, resultative constructions.