Use of INTER and Negating

[Brian Webster]

I'm trying to build a construct for a Hebrew search and am struggling with the INTER function combined with negation.

I'm looking for adverbial cases of non-articular plural אנשׁים. (I don't think this can happen unless there is a text critical problem as in 1Sam 2:33.)

I am assuming that אנשׁים after and close to a waw-consecutive masc plural verb will likely be the subject. So I want to exclude those. Between the verb and the occurrence of אנשׁים I want to exclude the article, direct object marker, and preposition right before אנשׁים. I also need to exclude any other verb between the first non--waw-consecutive verb and the use of אנשׁים. [[i will run a separate search for אנשׁים followed by a verb (without waw) but not preceded by a verb.]]

Here's a screen shot of a trial. Column 1: verb minus waw consecutive Column 2: Lex = אישׁ; Noun = plural absolute.

Between columns is negated INTER with article and D.O. marker, and particlePreposition, and verb; Within 5 words.

The results include examples of the article between the verb and אנשׁים, preposition between the verb and אנשׁים, and verb between the verb and אנשׁים. However the article or preposition will not be in the separate color marking hits.

 

I also tried putting all the negated elements in a column between the verb and אנשׁים, which also doesn't work. It did eliminate about 25% of the results but still included the negated elements, just didn't highlight them by color of font.

 

I also tried only putting only lexemes in the INTER window (article, D.O.; bet, lamed, kaf, min) and negating the INTER window. This reduced the number of results but still included elements between the verb and אנשׁים which I am trying to exclude.

 

I appreciate your suggestions.

 

[Helen Brown]

I don't have time to test it, but I think the issue is that the definition of an INTER is like that of a column. If you put alternative parts of speech you are saying that the item is article or D.O. marker or particlePreposition. This works for a positive INTER, and allows the word to be any one of these. A negative INTER might look as if the word cannot be any of them, but in fact it allows them because if it isn't one of them, the logic lets the word through.

 

I think that if you use a separate INTER for each item: article, D.O. marker and particlePreposition, these will all be eliminated from the search results.