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# 'Between' constructions in Biblical Hebrew

**Authors:** Joost Zwarts · **Year:** 2021 · **Venue:** Linguistics in the Netherlands 38, 163–178 **Link:** [doi.org/10.1075/avt.00055.zwa](https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00055.zwa) · **Licence:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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**Authors (1)**

1. [Joost Zwarts](https://openalex.org/A5035733976) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8892-6523) · h 23 · 2859 citations · 181 works

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

## What it is about

English *between* takes a conjoined object ("between A and B"); Biblical Hebrew בֵּין does not. It takes one plural noun (117 of 274 full phrases), or repeats itself, בֵּין A וּבֵין B (126), or adds lə-, בֵּין A לְ־B (28); longer lists repeat בֵּין (Gen 9:12). Following Barr, the וּבֵין pattern mostly links concrete individuals and places (spatial, or reciprocal relations such as war or covenant), while the lə- pattern links abstract classes in acts of distinguishing ("between good and bad"). The paper explains why two PPs joined or adjoined mean the same as one PP over a conjoined object: the meaning of 'between' has the structure of a principal filter, so intersecting "between A" with "between B" gives "between {A, B}".

## Ideas

- I1. In the trees, attach the second בֵּין phrase to the first as conj (for וּבֵין) or as a dependent of the first (for lə-), each with its own case marker; then let the world merge both objects into one collective argument {A, B}, so that the frame "covenant/war/separation between A and B" has a two-member set, not two separate locations.
- I2. Count the three patterns in the Torah (single plural object, וּבֵין, lə-) and the semantic class of each (spatial, reciprocal relation, distinction), as a table for the prepositions section.
- I3. Gloss rule: בֵּין A וּבֵין B and בֵּין A לְB → "between A and B"; a check against JPS 1917 that no "and between" survives in the English.

## For Mova

I1 is a head-rule point for `tools/macula` (`13-mova-tools.md` §6) and a frame rule for the world; I2 and I3 go into [Pronouns, particles and prepositions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/05-pronouns-particles/) (prepositions) and `08-syntax.md` (coordination).

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.1075/avt.00055.zwa](https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00055.zwa)

```
@inproceedings{zwarts2021between,
  title = {{'Between' constructions in Biblical Hebrew}},
  author = {Zwarts, Joost},
  booktitle = {Linguistics in the Netherlands},
  year = {2021},
  doi = {10.1075/avt.00055.zwa},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00055.zwa}
}
```

- [← previous From polysemy to semantic change: remarks on the lexeme miṣwà in Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2021-vergari-polysemy-semantic-change-remarks-lexeme/)
- [next → Serial Verb Constructions in North-West Semitic languages: From a synchronic radiation back to the 'Big Bang'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2022-andrason-serial-verb-constructions-north-west/)
- [↑ back to Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/)

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20 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

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