Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (original) (raw)

Books by Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal

Typological Studies in Language, 127, John Benjamins, 2020

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the syntax and semantics of a single linguistic p... more This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the syntax and semantics of a single linguistic phenomenon – the NP-strategy for expressing reciprocity – in synchronic, diachronic, and typological perspectives. It challenges the assumption common in the typological, syntactic, and semantic literature, namely that so-called reciprocal constructions encode symmetric relations. Instead, they are analyzed as constructions encoding unspecified relations. In effect, it provides a new proposal for the truth-conditional semantics of these constructions. More broadly, this book introduces new ways of bringing together historical linguistics and formal semantics, demonstrating how, on the one hand, the inclusion of historical data concerning the sources of reciprocal constructions enriches their synchronic analysis; and how, on the other hand, an analysis of the syntax and the semantics of these constructions serves as a key for understanding their historical origins.

The dialect spoken and written by the Jews of Babylonia from the third century CE onwards is know... more The dialect spoken and written by the Jews of Babylonia from the third century CE onwards is known as “Jewish Babylonian Aramaic”. This is the first comprehensive description of this dialect since Levias’ “Grammar of Babylonian Aramaic” of 1930. The current book offers a thorough reexamination of the grammar on the basis of a large corpus in its manuscript witnesses. It not only synthesizes the results of recent scholarship but introduces original insights on many important questions. The book is designed to appeal to readers of all backgrounds, including those with no prior background in Babylonian Aramaic or the Babylonian Talmud. The discussion frequently makes reference to parallels in other Semitic languages and in other Aramaic dialects, as well as to a variety of topics in linguistics . The book is structured as a textbook: it introduces topics in an order determined by pedagogical considerations, and offers vocabulary notes and translation exercises at the end. At the same time, the book can be used as a reference grammar.

Edited Books by Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal

Hebrew Studies, 62, 2021

After centuries in which Hebrew was largely a literary and liturgical langauge, in the late 19th ... more After centuries in which Hebrew was largely a literary and liturgical langauge, in the late 19th century and in the first decades of the 20th century it resumed its function as a spoken language in everyday use. In October 2017, Prof. Edit Doron initiated an ERC research project at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem seeking to explore this dramatic historical process from a theoretical linguistic point of view. Titled “The Emergence of Modern Hebrew as a Case-Study of Linguistic Discontinuity,” the project sought to trace the linguistic trajectory of Modern Hebrew during its early years, while also undertaking a theoretically-informed study of the linguistic mechanisms underlying the revival process. In a tragic blow to the linguistic research community, and especially to this
research group, Edit passed away inMarch 2019. Hoping to follow her legacy,
the research group managed to continue the work for another 18 months, even
during the Covid-19 pandemic, and held an online concluding conference in November 2020. The studies presented at that conference, which offered preliminary answers to the big questions at the heart of the project, comprise this issue of Hebrew Studies.

Springer, 2020

This book explores relationships and maps out intersections between discussions on causation in t... more This book explores relationships and maps out intersections between discussions on causation in three scientific disciplines: linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. The book is organized in five thematic parts, investigating connections between philosophical and linguistic studies of causation; presenting novel methodologies for studying the representation of causation; tackling central issues in syntactic and semantic representation of causal relations; and introducing recent advances in philosophical thinking on causation.

Beyond its thematic organization, readers will find several recurring topics throughout this book, such as the attempt to reduce causality to other non-causal terms; causal pluralism vs. one all-encompassing account for causation; causal relations pertaining to the mental as opposed to the physical realm, and more.
This collection also lays the foundation for questioning whether it is possible to evaluate available philosophical approaches to causation against the variety of linguistic phenomena ranging across diverse lexical and grammatical items, such as bound morphemes, prepositions, connectives, and verbs. Above all, it lays the groundwork for considering whether the fruits of the psychological-cognitive study of the perception of causal relations may contribute to linguistic and philosophical studies, and whether insights from linguistics can benefit the other two disciplines.

The eighteen studies presented here originated in a symposium held at Yale in 2014, attended by s... more The eighteen studies presented here originated in a symposium held at Yale in 2014, attended by scholars from Europe, Israel, and North America. The papers approach the subject of Mishnaic Hebrew from many different angles and directions, including grammar, from morphology to syntax to pragmatics; the relationship between the literary dialect and epigraphic evidence; manuscripts; questions of language contact, lexicography, social history, and medieval traditions; and the problem of translating Mishnaic Hebrew into modern languages. The contributors to this volume are among the leading scholars in the field and the collection represents both the current state of research and the cutting edge of future work.

Papers by Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal

Russian as a Heritage Language From Research to Classroom Applications Edited By Olesya Kisselev, Oksana Laleko, Irina Dubinina, 2024

The chapter reports on the results of an experimental study that examined register variation in t... more The chapter reports on the results of an experimental study that examined register variation in the writing of adult Russian Heritage speakers residing in Israel, specifically exploring such characteristics of formal writing as average sentence length, average word length, nominalizations, Latin origin vocabulary, and subordinate and coordinated clauses. The study compared the written production of the heritage speakers to that of Russian-dominant speakers residing in Israel. The findings
indicate that, similarly to Russian-dominant speakers, heritage speakers of Russian distinguish between formal and informal written registers, but also exhibit some divergences. The authors then explored how reading practices and access to Russian language instruction in Israeli schools impacted the ability of heritage writers to employ the identified elements in formal writing. The chapter concludes with a discussion of possible pedagogical approaches to teaching register variation
in the heritage language classroom.

Linguistics

This study delves into the intricate process of reanalysis, wherein linguistic expressions underg... more This study delves into the intricate process of reanalysis, wherein linguistic expressions undergo grammatical or semantic changes, or sometimes both. The primary objective of this study is to explore the theoretical aspects surrounding historical changes of this nature. To facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the topic, we provide a formal description of reanalysis as an analytical tool. Our formal description allows for the differentiation of various change scenarios, enabling us to identify distinct types of shifts from one analysis to another. This approach not only focuses on what has been reanalyzed, be it the morphology, syntax or the semantics, but also emphasizes the interplay between all three linguistic modules (Form, Grammar, and Meaning) and their relationships. This holistic perspective enables a systematic examination of the significance of what remains constant at both points in time during the reanalysis process. The key insight arising from this analysis leads us to propose and substantiate the Early Semantic Stability Hypothesis. This hypothesis posits that the truth-conditional semantics of the original proposition remain unchanged throughout reanalysis, either in all contexts or in specific "bridging contexts" where the reanalysis occurs. To demonstrate these phenomena, we present a compelling test case, focusing on the development of the counterfactual conditional marker ʾilmale in Hebrew and Aramaic. Through a detailed examination of the syntactic and semantic reanalyses it underwent, we observe the emergence of unique semantic features. By adopting a formal semantic perspective, we address fundamental questions such as the level of ambiguity required for reanalysis to take place, the potential existence of universal constraints on reanalysis, and potential motivations driving these linguistic changes. This investigation provides valuable insights into the intricate mechanisms at play during reanalysis and contributes to the broader understanding of linguistic evolution and development.

Glossa, 2024

This paper delves into the semantics of the reciprocal construction recognized in the literature ... more This paper delves into the semantics of the reciprocal construction recognized in the literature as "verbal" or "lexical" reciprocals. A common assumption is that predicates of this construction inherently encode a symmetric meaning, often marked morphologically in many languages. This paper advocates for a crucial distinction between two types of predicates: recpredicates (e.g., the Hebrew verb hitnašek 'kiss')-a class of predicates that do not inherently denote symmetry but carry an underspecified meaning, so that in specific defined contexts, they can induce a symmetric reading. In contrast, sym-predicates (e.g., the Hebrew attribute zehe 'be identical')-this class of predicates inherently encodes symmetric relations. Drawing upon Winter's (2002) typology of verbs, it is posited that rec-predicates are dyadic, taking two atoms as their arguments, while sym-predicates are monadic, with a single argument denoting a set. The analysis in this paper adopts Bar-Asher Siegal's (2020) methodology for identifying strategies expressing reciprocity and is substantiated with a survey of the various syntactic structures in which the relevant predicates manifest, along with their diverse interpretations. The paper critically examines previous analyses of these predicates, scrutinizing both empirical and theoretical challenges encountered by these analyses. With a specific focus on verbal strategies for expressing reciprocity in Hebrew, the study, informed by the shared characteristics identified in previous research, suggests that the conclusions drawn for Hebrew may be applicable to other languages as well.

Proceedings of the 40th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 2022

Under progressive marking, telic predicates can describe events that fail to reach culmination. P... more Under progressive marking, telic predicates can describe events that fail to reach culmination. Prominent accounts of this so-called "imperfective paradox" tie the effect to the modal accessibility of culmination, intensionalizing the progressive operator so that it instantiates qualifying (culminated) eventualities across a set of alternatives to the evaluation world. This approach faces a number of empirical challenges, including the acceptability of progressives of unlikely or locally out-of-reach events. This paper proposes a new approach, on which telic progressives are instead sensitive to (mereological) structure inherited from an event type associated with telic predicate P. An event type constitutes a formal causal model (e.g., Pearl 2000) in which P's culmination condition C occurs as a dependent or caused variable. The model provides a set of causal pathways for realizing C, each of which comprises a set of jointly sufficient causal conditions for C, and also establishes (sets of) conditions which preclude C. On this approach, the progress of an actual token P-eventuality can be measured with respect to the event type. A reference time situation s satisfies PROG(P) just in case it is a plausible cross-section of an incomplete causal pathway in P: s must verify some but not all the conditions in a causal pathway for C, and fail to verify a sufficient set of conditions for non-culmination.

Shay Le-moshe, 2022

This paper proposes a formal definition of reanalysis, while emphasizing the importance of the di... more This paper proposes a formal definition of reanalysis, while emphasizing the importance of the distinction between two different kinds of reanalysis: those in which the change is confined to the grammatical level, and those in which it is confined to the semantic level. After tracing the history of a negative counterfactual conditional marker in Hebrew and Aramaic which underwent both syntactic and semantic reanalyses, the paper assesses the concept of reanalysis with focus on the following questions: Is reanalysis a single, clearly-defined phenomenon, and if so, what is its nature? Is it merely a descriptive label for a certain observable state of affairs, or does it explain diachronic changes? Alternatively, perhaps it is a theoretical constraint, a theoretical requirement that linguistic change must be associated with specific environments where reanalysis can take place? A detailed analysis of the marker and its evolution yields the following broad hypothesis: Reanalysis of a linguistic form does not change the truth conditions of the proposition that contains it, regardless of whether the reanalysis is on the grammatical level or on the semantic level.

Leshonenu 84, 2022

This paper follows the history of the sequence kol-še-hu (‘all-that-he’) from Rabbinic Hebrew unt... more This paper follows the history of the sequence kol-še-hu (‘all-that-he’) from Rabbinic Hebrew until its uses in Modern Hebrew. It identifies changes already in the rabbinic corpus: at first these forms functioned in a compositional manner in free relative clauses; they then underwent a process of morphological univerbation in which they became a single linguistic unit that functions as an indefinite pronoun /determiner.
Furthermore, the paper points to a semantic change that took place in Modern Hebrew in which kolšehu denotes a universal quantification of kind instead of quantity (which was the case until the early stages of Modern Hebrew). It thus demonstrates the continuity between Modern Hebrew and earlier stages of Hebrew and the pertinence of the tools of historical linguistics for the study of diachronic phenomena in the emergence of Modern Hebrew.

Building on Babel’s Rubble, 2022

This paper deals with two presentative dative constructions in Modern Hebrew, characterizing them... more This paper deals with two presentative dative constructions in Modern Hebrew, characterizing them from two angles: as dative constructions and as presentative constructions. It demonstrates that this dual perspective allows to account for both the syntactic and the semantic differences between them.

Hebrew Studies 62, 2021

This paper characterizes Medieval Hebrew and Aramaic as literary languages and seeks to explain h... more This paper characterizes Medieval Hebrew and Aramaic as literary languages and seeks to explain how a 'literary language' namely a language used mainly in literary contexts arises, while utilizing three types of research: comparative philological research, which compares different languages and texts in terms of their vocabulary and grammar; sociolinguistic research, which examines the social functions of language use; and psycholinguistic research, which (in this particular case) examines issues of language acquisition. The paper builds on philological studies of literary languages to explain how the grammar of these languages evolves. It assumes that the acquisition of such languages is similar to second-language acquisition, while taking into account that these languages are both acquired and used in a strictly literary context. The main argument of the paper is that literary languages should be studied the same way as other languages, because ultimately after making some adjustments motivated by their particular functions they are compatible with the standard models of second-language acquisition.

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2022

In 1894, Jacob Barth proposed that the preformative conjugation in some of the Semitic languages ... more In 1894, Jacob Barth proposed that the preformative conjugation in some of the Semitic languages goes back to a – generally bygone – inverse correlation between the thematic vowel of the stem and that of the conjugational prefix. Evidence for such a distribution is well attested in all branches of Central Semitic, yet it remains disputed whether it should be reconstructed for Proto-Semitic as well. This paper makes use of new data from a living Semitic variety, namely the Arabic dialect of Ḥugariyyah in the south of Yemen, where the pattern observed by Barth is still operative. We examine the interaction of the conjugational prefixes with the dialectal future tense marker š(a)-, and point to cases where the inverse correlation is violated. We outline a sequential development, starting with a phonetically-driven re-distribution of the preformative vowels, and followed by their reanalysis as integral to the prefix. We then propose that comparable developments may have taken place in other Semitic varieties, predominantly Akkadian, and thus view the Akkadian preformative conjugation as a derivative of a former inverse correlation, as reconstructed by Barth.

ELM (Experiments in Linguistic meaning), 2021

Causal Selection is a widely discussed topic in philosophy and cognitive science, concerned with ... more Causal Selection is a widely discussed topic in philosophy and cognitive science, concerned with characterizing the choice of "the cause" among the many individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions which any effect depends on. In this paper, we argue for an additional selection process underlying causal statements: Causative Construction Selection (CC-selection), which pertains to the choice of linguistic constructions used to express causal relations. We aim to answer the following question: given that a speaker wishes to describe the relation between one of the conditions and the effect, which linguistic constructions are available? We take CC-selection to underlie causal selection, since the latter is restricted by the linguistic possibilities resulting from the former. Based on a series of experiments, we demonstrate that factors taken previously as contributing to causal selection should, in fact, be considered as the parameters that license the various linguistic constructions under given circumstances, based on previous knowledge about the causal structure of the world (the causal model). These factors are therefore part of the meaning of the causative expressions.

This paper introduces a systematic way of analyzing the semantics of causative linguistic express... more This paper introduces a systematic way of analyzing the semantics of causative linguistic expressions, and of how causal relations are expressed in natural languages. The starting point for this broad agenda is an attempt to provide an explanation for the asymmetrical inferential relationship between two causative constructions: change-of-state (CoS) verbs and the verb cause, commonly ascribed to the former having an additional prerequisite of direct causation. The direct causation hypothesis, however, is fraught with empirical and theoretical challenges. At the theoretical level, capturing the felicity conditions specific to CoS verbs and the notion of direct causation requires a means of modelling complex causal structures. This is on no account a trivial task, as it necessitates, inter alia, modelling causation in a way that is germane to the linguistic expressions designating such relations. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to develop a framework for modelling the semantics of causal statements. For this purpose, this paper makes use of the framework of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), and it demonstrates how this approach provides tools for a rigorous model-theoretic treatment of the differential semantics of causal expressions. This paper introduces formal logical definitions of different types of conditions using SEM networks, and show how this proposal and the formal tools it employs allow us to make sense of the asymmetric entailment relationship between the two constructions. In our proposal, CoS verbs do not require contiguity between cause and effect at all, but instead they require that its subject is set by default to a participant in completion event, the event which "completes" a sufficient set of conditions, such that following this event (but not before) the values of the set of conditions in the sufficient set entail that the effect occurs. According to this, the intuition of direct causation arises (epiphenomenally) from contrasting CoS verbs with overt cause sentences: the stronger selection pattern of the former-which requires a completion eventmay exclude more temporally distant conditions, while the latter admits any necessary condition.

What's the Mishnah, 2022

In discussing the history of the Hebrew language, a distinction must be made between its history ... more In discussing the history of the Hebrew language, a distinction must be made between its history as a linguistic system and the history of its written forms. The former assumes an idealized periodization of the language and distinguishes between Early Hebrew (EH) and Late Hebrew (LH). The latter bases the division on corpora, resulting in the traditional classification into Biblical Hebrew, Qumranic Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew, with further sub-divisions such as early vs. late Biblical Hebrew, Early vs. Late Mishnaic Hebrew, Babylonian vs. Palestinian Talmudic Hebrew, etc. Although these two perspectives are fundamentally different, they are clearly interrelated: on the one hand, our knowledge about the history of the structure(s) of the language is based on data gathered from the Hebrew corpora and on the historical setting of these texts; on the other hand, the analysis of the linguistic information in the corpora is a de facto description of how the different linguistic systems were used in each corpus.
This paper aims to examine the language of the Mishnah from these two perspectives and explore the conceptual distinction between the two categories with which it is associated, namely Late Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew. I will outline what it means to provide a description of Late Hebrew as a linguistic system, and what it means to examine Mishnaic Hebrew as the language of a written corpus. Accordingly, this paper has a twofold goal:

to explain the difference between the two perspectives as relevant to the language of the Mishnah.
to demonstrate the advantages of keeping them separate.

Perspectives on Causation Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 2017 Workshop, Edited by Elitzur A. Bar-Asher Siegal and Nora Boneh, 2020

This paper examines reciprocal connections between the discussions on causation in philosophy and... more This paper examines reciprocal connections between the discussions on causation in philosophy and in linguistics. Philosophers occasionally seek insights from the linguistic literature on certain expressions, and linguists often rely on philosophers' analyses of causation, and assume that the relevant linguistic expressions denote philosophical concepts related to causation. Through the study of various semantic aspects of causative constructions, mainly targeting the nature of the dependency encoded in various linguistic constructions and the nature of the relata, this paper explores interfaces between the discussions in the two disciplines, and at the same time points to significant differences in their objects of investigation, in their methods and in their goals. Finally, the paper attempts to observe whether the disciplinary line is maintained, i.e. whether or not it is the case that metaphysical questions are examined as linguistic ones and vice versa.

Typological Studies in Language, 127, John Benjamins, 2020

Hebrew Studies, 62, 2021

Springer, 2020

Russian as a Heritage Language From Research to Classroom Applications Edited By Olesya Kisselev, Oksana Laleko, Irina Dubinina, 2024

Linguistics

Glossa, 2024

Proceedings of the 40th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 2022

Shay Le-moshe, 2022

Leshonenu 84, 2022

Building on Babel’s Rubble, 2022

Hebrew Studies 62, 2021

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2022

ELM (Experiments in Linguistic meaning), 2021

What's the Mishnah, 2022

to explain the difference between the two perspectives as relevant to the language of the Mishnah.
to demonstrate the advantages of keeping them separate.

Perspectives on Causation Selected Papers from the Jerusalem 2017 Workshop, Edited by Elitzur A. Bar-Asher Siegal and Nora Boneh, 2020

Aramaic Studies, 2020

Few studies have focused on the Aramaic of the Zohar, and to this day, only one of these presents... more Few studies have focused on the Aramaic of the Zohar, and to this day, only one of these presents a completed grammatical analysis. Scholars have dealt at large, however, with the question of whether the Aramaic of the Zohar is artificial or not. I briefly review the history of the literature around this question, then propose my own criteria to examine whether a language of a given text is indeed artificial. Finally, I put this methodology into practice, as I investigate the nature of Zoharic Aramaic by examining specific linguistic phenomena in the relevant corpus.

Hebrew and Aramaic in the Middle Ages - Language Studies and Grammatical Thought, edited by Bar-Asher Siegal Elitzur and Doron Ya'akov, 2020

This paper characterizes Medieval Hebrew and Aramaic as literary languages, and uses the Aramaic ... more This paper characterizes Medieval Hebrew and Aramaic as literary languages, and uses the Aramaic of the Zohar as a test-case to explore this category. The paper seeks to explain how a ‘literary language’ – namely a language used mainly in literary contexts – arises, while utilizing three types of research: comparative philological research, which compares different languages and texts in terms of their vocabulary and grammar; sociolinguistic research, which examines the social functions of language use; and psycholinguistic research, which (in this particular case) examines issues of language acquisition.
The paper builds on philological studies of literary languages to explain how the grammar of these languages evolves. It assumes that the acquisition of such languages is similar to second-language acquisition, while taking into account that these languages are both acquired and used in a strictly literary context. The main argument of the paper is that literary languages should be studied the same way as other languages, because ultimately – after making some adjustments motivated by their particular functions – they are compatible with the standard models of second-language acquisition. After concluding my general theoretical discussion, I apply my conclusions therein to the Aramaic of the Zohar (the main text of the Jewish Kabballah), adapting previous studies of Zoharic Aramaic to this theoretical framework, and examining various new issues in the Zoharic grammar.

Proceedings of the LSA 5/2 , 2020

Journal for Semitics, 2019

The biblical corpus features a number of verses in which interrogative pronouns appear in non-int... more The biblical corpus features a number of verses in which interrogative pronouns appear in non-interrogative contexts. The same phenomenon is observed in many other languages and gives rise to the question known in the linguistic literature as "the interrogative-indefinite puzzle," namely, what is the natural connection between the interrogative and indefinite functions. This paper seeks to explore how this question should be examined in the context of the Biblical Hebrew data. It will be argued that a consideration of typological observations can yield important insights into this question. Subsequently, it proposes a formal semantic analysis of the indefinite pronouns in question and shows how the proposed approach can help explain their distribution.

Breitbarth, Anne, Elisabeth Witzenhausen, Miriam Bouzouita & Lieven Danckaert (eds.). Cycles in Language Change, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019

This chapter discusses the syntax and the semantics of the negator lāw in Jewish Babylonian Arama... more This chapter discusses the syntax and the semantics of the negator lāw in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (henceforth JBA) through the lens of the diachronic emergence of this negator. The new negator lāw is a sentential external negator, whose syntactic and semantic properties is discussed alongside a diachronic study concerning its origin. Syntactically, we propose that lāw, like negative DPs/PPs in English (Haegeman 2000) and Sicilian neca (Cruschina 2010; Garzonio and Poletto 2015) is merged in SpecFocP in the extended CP-domain from where it takes wide scope. Semantically, lāw takes propositional scope and expresses the meaning of external negation, equivalent to the independent clause: ‘it is not the case’. Diachronically, lāw, as a single-morpheme external negation, developed from a cleft whose matrix clause negates the content of the embedded clause. Following work by Bar-Asher Siegal (2015b), we argue that the syntactic reanalysis of lāw is triggered by a phonological process of univerbation between the regular negator lā in clefts with the agreement clitic. This syntactic reanalysis involves a morphological univerbation of lāw (Andersen 1987). The main claim of this chapter is that the syntactic and the semantic characteristics of this negator can be better understood in the light of its historical origin. Moreover, this is an interesting example of how a similar semantic interpretation can be associated with two different syntactic structures, thus allowing a syntactic reanalysis. This type of development is not part of the Jespersen Cycle or Croft’s cycle, but constitutes the development of a non-standard negator next to the standard negator. It is demonstrated that a similar development can be observed for the Sicilian negator neca as well (cf. Garzonio and Poletto 2015).

Leshonenu, 2019

In the scholarship, the discussions of the semantics of Aramaic אלמלי/אלמלא אילולי/אילולא throug... more In the scholarship, the discussions of the semantics of Aramaic אלמלי/אלמלא אילולי/אילולא throughout the history of Hebrew have focused on the function of these expressions as sometimes simply marking the head of a counterfactual condition, but at other times denoting "if not." This paper is divided into two, separately published parts. The first part follows the tradition that the answer to this puzzle lies in historical changes and dialectal variations. The second part examines various alterations that occurred during the transmission of the texts in which these forms appear. This type of study has the ability to shed light on the semantic interpretations of these expressions and, at the same time, on the linguistic knowledge of those who transmitted these texts. Thus, this paper aims to contribute to the linguistic analysis of these expressions and to our understanding of the ways in which talmudic texts were transmitted, namely, the phenomena that could affect their content.

U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 26.1, 2019

Causative constructions come in lexical and periphrastic variants, exemplified in English by Sam... more Causative constructions come in lexical and periphrastic variants, exemplified in English by Sam killed Lee and Sam caused Lee to die. While use of the former, the lexical causative, entails the truth of the latter, an entailment in the other direction does not hold. The source of this asymmetry is commonly ascribed to the lexical causative having an additional prerequisite of “direct causation", such that the causative relation holds between a contiguous cause and effect (Fodor 1970, Katz 1970). However, this explanation encounters both empirical and theoretical problems (Nelleman & van der Koot 2012). To explain the source of the directness inferences (as well as other longstanding puzzles), we propose a formal analysis based on the framework of Structural Equation Models (SEMs) (Pearl 2000) which provides the necessary background for licensing causal inferences. Specifically, we provide a formalization of a 'sufficient set of conditions' within a model and demonstrate its role in the selectional parameters of causative descriptions. We argue that “causal sufficiency” is not a property of singular conditions, but rather sets of conditions, which are individually necessary but only sufficient when taken together (a view originally motivated in the philosophical literature by Mackie 1965). We further introduce the notion of a “completion event” of a sufficient set, which is critical to explain the particular inferential profile of lexical causatives.

Review of Biblical Literature, 2022

This volume by H. H. Hardy II deals comprehensively with prepositions in the Hebrew Bible, both f... more This volume by H. H. Hardy II deals comprehensively with prepositions in the Hebrew Bible, both from the perspective of their meaning and from the historical linguistic perspective of how they developed. The book is significant and valuable for several research communities. Biblical scholars will benefit from the additional hermeneutical tools it contributes to the unending project of interpreting biblical verses. Biblical Hebrew scholars, and Semiticists in general, will find in it important linguistic discussions, both synchronic and diachronic. Finally, the larger community of historical linguists, especially those interested in the phenomena of linguistic change and grammaticalization, will find great interest in the fascinating picture it paints, both broad and detailed, of a wide range of specific historical changes. In light of all of this, the publication of this book is definitely an occasion for celebration.

Orientalistische Literaturzeltung, 2021

Haaretz, 2020

If you will it, Herzl is a neocon Conservative thinker Yoram Hazony's take on the 'prophet of the... more If you will it, Herzl is a neocon Conservative thinker Yoram Hazony's take on the 'prophet of the Jewish state' sticks to myths and recycles arguments. His new book is an example of appropriating the past to suit today's political and ideological purposes The figure of Theodor Herzl, dominating the landscape of the Israeli coastal city named for him.

Haaretz’ Book Review, 2020

Hebrew Studies 48 397 Reviews detailed historical critical assessment of ARN and its relationship... more Hebrew Studies 48 397 Reviews detailed historical critical assessment of ARN and its relationship to other rabbinic texts. More problematic than any deficiencies on the part of Schofer are a number of decisions by the press that in the end seriously detract from this book's usefulness. Inasmuch as so much of the argumentation of this book occurs in the notes, almost any serious reader of this work will be frustrated by the publisher's decision to place them as endnotes. Even more upsetting is that no one indexed the vast corpus of notes rendering them much less useful to scholars. I am all in favor of making books more accessible when possible, however, in this case the publisher's decisions have hurt this book's most likely market, scholars who would want to make use of his detailed and sophisticated argumentation.