Work

From polysemy to semantic change: remarks on the lexeme "miswà" in Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: The paper discusses the semantic shifts of the lexeme miṣwà from Biblical Hebrew to Mishnaic Hebrew. This lexeme encodes some crucial notions of the Hebrew and Jewish value system, as those of commandment and duty. The linguistic data presented will offer a clear example of how the study of the late stratum of the biblical language can shed light on the diachronic semantic shift of the noun. Namely, Late Biblical Hebrew displays some significant semantic innovations, in the form of synchronic contextual variants, that will be fully developed in the post-biblical strata of the Hebrew language to the point of becoming the core meaning of the lexeme.

Source: Quaderni di Linguistica e Studi Orientali

DOI: 10.13128/qulso-2421-7220-12010

Author: Romina Vergari

Institution: University of Florence

Language: English

Topic: Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W4391710386

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