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# Chapter 3: Minimalist assumptions on negation in Biblical Hebrew syntax

**Authors:** Fanie Snyman · **Year:** 2004 · **Venue:** Acta Academica (supplement chapter) **Link:** [doi.org/10.38140/aa.v0i3.865](https://doi.org/10.38140/aa.v0i3.865) · not in the library (download failed, 2026-10-17) · **Licence:** free to read, no CC licence — summary only

[**0** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W4408298803) openalex · 2026-10-18[Acta Academica Critical views on society culture and politics](https://openalex.org/S4210195998)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.38140/aa.v0i3.865)
- [PDF](https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/aa/article/download/865/858)
- [DOI 10.38140/aa.v0i3.865](https://doi.org/10.38140/aa.v0i3.865)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W4408298803)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Fanie Snyman](https://openalex.org/A5062028802) h 2 · 11 citations · 32 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-18); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

**Not read: the PDF could not be fetched.** From the title: a chapter applying Chomsky's Minimalist Program to negation in Biblical Hebrew — where the negators sit in the clause structure (a Negation phrase above the verb), and how the choice among לֹא, אַל, אֵין and בְּלִי/בִּלְתִּי relates to the verb form and to mood. Check against the text.

## Ideas

- I1. (to check) Negator–mood table from our trees: count לֹא with yiqtol (prohibitive or future), אַל with jussive, אֵין with verbless or participle clauses, בִּלְתִּי with infinitive; deviations are either errors in MACULA's `Type` or real exceptions to list.
- I2. Use the table in the `neg-polarity` rule: a negated jussive with אַל is a prohibition (act = directive), לֹא + yiqtol in law is an apodictic prohibition, אֵין is an existential denial.

## For Mova

I1 is a measure on the Torah trees and a section in [Pronouns, particles and prepositions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/05-pronouns-particles/) (negatives) and `08-syntax.md` (negation); I2 refines `neg-polarity` and `law3` in `tools/macula/src/prag.rs`. Re-read once the PDF is in.

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.38140/aa.v0i3.865](https://doi.org/10.38140/aa.v0i3.865)

```
@inproceedings{snyman2004chapter,
  title = {{Chapter 3: Minimalist assumptions on negation in Biblical Hebrew syntax}},
  author = {Snyman, Fanie},
  booktitle = {Acta Academica Critical views on society culture and politics},
  year = {2004},
  doi = {10.38140/aa.v0i3.865},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.38140/aa.v0i3.865}
}
```

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