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Copyright

Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé; Jacobus A. Naudé;

Published On

2025-03-07

Page Range

pp. 259–290

Language

  • English

Print Length

32 pages

A Case for Distributive Quantification of kol in Biblical Hebrew

Chapter of: Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Volume 1: Hebrew and the Wider Semitic World(pp. 259–290)
The article evaluates Edit Doron’s proposed Distributivity Cycle concerning the Hebrew quantifier kol ‘all, every’. Doron claims that kol was originally a noun meaning ‘entirety’, later grammaticalised into a universal determiner with collective and free-choice meanings, but not distributive usage in Biblical Hebrew. The study critically examines her semantic-based arguments, including claims that kol lacks scope ambiguity and distributive meanings, focusing on floated kol, morphosyntactic properties, and verbal agreement. Examples demonstrate that kol exhibits distributive properties depending on NP characteristics like number and definiteness. The article concludes that kol functions as both a universal and distributive quantifier in Biblical Hebrew, challenging Doron’s framework and highlighting the multidimensional nature of grammatical development.

Contributors

Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé

(author)
Senior Professor in the Department of Hebrew at University of the Free State

Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé (PhD, University of Chicago, 1992) is Senior Professor in the Department of Hebrew, University of the Free State (Bloemfontein, South Africa). Her research publications focus on pre-modern Hebrew linguistics, especially syntax and pragmatics, the syntactic structures of Shilluk (a Nilo- Saharan language of South Sudan), and Bible translation. She is a co-editor of the series Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic published by Eisenbrauns/Penn State University Press. She also co-edited Diachrony in Biblical Hebrew (Eisenbrauns, 2012). Selected recent publications: (with Jacobus A. Naudé) ‘Pronominal Reference and Agreement in Vocative Expressions in Biblical Hebrew’, Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 50/1–2 (2024), and (with Jacobus A. Naudé) ‘Mitigating Gender-Sensitivity in English and Alterity in Biblical Hebrew: The Revised JPS Edition’. Hebrew Studies 65/1 (2024).

Jacobus A. Naudé

(author)
Senior Professor in the Department of Hebrew at University of the Free State
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8680-0476

Jacobus A. Naudé (DLitt, University of the Free State, 1996) is Senior Professor in the Department of Hebrew, University of the Free State (Bloemfontein, South Africa). His research publications focus on pre-modern Hebrew linguistics, especially from generative and complexity theoretical perspectives, religious translation, and translation theory. He serves on the editorial boards of Folia Orientalia and Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages, among others, and is a co-editor of the series Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic published by Eisenbrauns/Penn State University Press. He is a co-author (with Christo H. J. van der Merwe and Jan A. Kroeze) of A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar (2nd ed., Bloomsbury, 2017), (with Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé) ‘Pronominal Reference and Agreement in Vocative Expressions in Biblical Hebrew’. Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 50/1–2 (2024), and (with Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé) ‘Mitigating Gender-Sensitivity in English and Alterity in Biblical Hebrew: The Revised JPS Edition’. Hebrew Studies 65/1 (2024).