[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2014-wilson-verbal-valency-biblical-hebrew-analysis/)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [docs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/) / [papers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/) / [Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/) / Verbal Valency in Biblical Hebrew: An Analysis of the Valency of ʿbr

# Verbal Valency in Biblical Hebrew: An Analysis of the Valency of ʿbr

**Authors:** James Douglas Wilson · **Year:** 2014 · **Venue:** dissertation, Asbury Theological Seminary (ATS Dissertations) **Link:** [place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/598](https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/598/) · **Licence:** copyrighted — summary only (free to read, no CC licence stated)

ePlace - Preserving, Learning, and Creative Exchange (Asbury Theological Seminary)

- [Publisher's page](https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/598/)
- [PDF](https://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1619&context=ecommonsatsdissertations)

**Authors (1)**

1. James Douglas Wilson

Citations and author metrics from OpenAlex (); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

The full text is not in the library (download refused with HTTP 403) and the repository page carries no abstract, so this card rests on the title alone and its ideas are provisional. The work is a valency study of a single verb, עבר ʿbr "pass over, cross, go through, transgress", in Biblical Hebrew: which complements it takes (direct object, prepositional phrases with עַל, בְּ, מִן, אֶל, לִפְנֵי), how many, and how the meaning shifts with the frame (crossing a river, passing by someone, transgressing a command, in the hiphil causing to pass or transferring). Such studies usually follow the valency approach of Richter or Dyk and the ETCBC, distinguishing obligatory complements from optional adjuncts.

## Ideas

- I1. Build a valency frame table for עבר from the Torah trees: for each occurrence, the stem, the set of dependents (obj, obl with the preposition lemma), and the JPS verb used ("pass over", "cross", "transgress", "go through"). Clusters of frame + gloss give sense distinctions for the dictionary.
- I2. Generalize: a valency-frame column in the Torah dictionary for the 100 most frequent verbs, derived the same way and checked against BDB's sense divisions. This is cheap and makes the dictionary's senses explainable by syntax.
- I3. A gloss rule: עבר + object/עַל with a law or covenant word (מִצְוָה, בְּרִית, פִּי יְהוָה) → "transgress"; with a river, land or border → "cross"; measure against JPS.

## For Mova

I1–I3 belong to the Torah dictionary (`macula dict`, [The lexicon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/10-lexicon/), polysemy) and to `08-syntax.md` (objects and prepositional complements). They need only our trees and the JPS alignment; the dissertation, once read, would serve as a check.

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```
@inproceedings{wilson2014verbal,
  title = {{Verbal Valency in Biblical Hebrew: An Analysis of the Valency of ʿbr}},
  author = {Wilson, James Douglas},
  booktitle = {ePlace - Preserving, Learning, and Creative Exchange (Asbury Theological Seminary)},
  year = {2014},
  url = {https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/598/}
}
```

- [← previous Left Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew: A Cognitive Linguistic Account](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2014-westbury-left-dislocation-biblical-hebrew-cognitive/)
- [next → A Critical Engagement with the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System Theories of John Cook and Jan Joosten by Applying Aspect Prominent Theory and Relative Tense Theory to Psalms 1–41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2015-dyck-critical-engagement-biblical-hebrew-verbal/)
- [↑ back to Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/)