Arguments of a Hebrew verb

[ofirzu]

Hello,

I'm a complete newbie. I'd like to know how to make the following search:

 

What are the arguments of the Hebrew verb b-r-k ("bless", in Piel)?

 

Specifically:

(1) What are its possible subjects? (For example: 40% = The Lord, 5% = Jacob, ...). It would be nice to have a Pie Chart.

(2) What are its possible objects? (For example: 30% = you, 20% = Israel, ...). 

 

If possible, I'd like to know this verb's possible adjuncts: "at dawn", "by the river", etc.

 

Thank you,

Ofir.

[Robert Holmstedt]

Interesting question. 

 

Below are my searches, with the pie chart analytics beside them.

 

For the complement (aka "object") search, it surprised me that Yhwh was the most common complement, until I remembered the Psalms. (By the way, I limited it to noun complements; but you could certainly remove "noun" and see what more pops up.)

 

 

In the subject search (2nd screenshot), all cases of null subjects are excluded (unless you intentionally insert "null" into the subject column). This explains why there is a drop to 45 hits (out of a total 201 in which BRK piel is used). Interestingly, I don't see one example of Jacob blessing anyone. 

 

 

For adjuncts, you would create a similar search as the one with the compliment, but instead of complement, insert adjunct, as in the third screenshot.

 

[Peter Bekins]

In the subject search (2nd screenshot), all cases of null subjects are excluded (unless you intentionally insert "null" into the subject column). This explains why there is a drop to 45 hits (out of a total 201 in which BRK piel is used). Interestingly, I don't see one example of Jacob blessing anyone. 

 

Rightly he is named Jacob ... what a jerk!

[Peter Bekins]

Hmmm, wait...Gen 47:10 seems to be skipped

 

 

‏וַיְבָ֥רֶךְ יַעֲקֹ֖ב אֶת־פַּרְעֹ֑ה

[Michel Gilbert]

I was just in the process of writing,

ויברך יעקב את פרעה
Gen 47:7,10

ויברך אותם אישׁ אשׁר כברכתו ברך אתם
Gen 49:28

[Peter Bekins]

The search is missing subjects that disrupt the predicate phrase, see also Gen 2:3, 9:1, 25:11, etc.

 

Pete

Edited April 20, 2017 by Peter Bekins

[Peter Bekins]

Double-click "predicate phrase" and set to "one segment". Is this a new option?

[ofirzu]

Thank you, Robert, for showing me your solutions. Peter, thanks for the addition. I understand such searches need to be tweaked more and more in order to get closer to the results I'm looking for.

 

Is the following correct:

(1) You can't get rid of the "bless" part of the Pie Chart. Since the query searched for "bless" and its subjects, the verb "bless" will be part of the results, and a slice in the Pie Chart. More generally, anything you define as part of the construct will appear in the results.

(2) Clicking on a slice in a Pie Chart cannot take you to the list of verses that contributed to this slice. For example, clicking on "soul" will not open the list of verses within the result list containing "soul" as a subject.

 

Thank you again,

Ofir.

[Robert Holmstedt]

Pete,

 

Right you are! And yes, the ability to nuance search the discontinuous segments of a phrase is fairly new (perhaps a few updates ago?). It was significant improvement. Sadly, I keep forgetting to use it!

 

Ofir -- I know nothing of the pie chart. I was mildly surprised (and very pleased) that it worked with the syntax at all. 

[Robert Holmstedt]

Ok, I just re-did the search with the "one segment" clicked in the Predicate Phrase. Kudos to Roy for the programming on this -- very cool.

[Peter Bekins]

Ofir, the pie chart reflects the "hits" and because we have asked for both the verb ברך–2 and the <subject> they both count as hits. I don't think there is a way to restrict the pie chart to only the <subject> hits, though I wish there were. 

 

Also, keep in mind that we are only looking at the nouns. If you want the full semantic picture you probably need to tally up the anaphors for the pronouns (and null subjects) by hand. The database doesn't link them so there is no way to do it automatically.

 

Pete

[Jordan S]

You can restrict the pie chart to SUBJECT by using the drop down menu in the top right corner of the pie chart. 

 

Sort by SYNTAX, then click the SUBJECT wedge. 

 

Unfortunately, the shift-click on the pie wedge from a construct search is not yet fully implemented to display the verse refs (as far as I can tell). 

[ofirzu]

Thank you, Jordan, that's cool!