The usual suspects: Slavic, Yiddish, and the accusative existentials and possessives in modern Hebrew

Moshe Taube*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Existential and possessive constructions with a definite NP marked as object appear in both spoken and written Modern Hebrew. This paper ascribes their appearance to negative existential and possessive constructions with genitive accusative in Slavic languages (Polish, Russian, Ukrainian). These were reinterpreted in Yiddish as accusative and subsequently calqued by bilingual speakers of Modern Hebrew in the first generations of its emergence as a spoken language.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLanguage Contact and the Development of Modern Hebrew
EditorsEdit Doron
PublisherBrill Academic Publishers
Pages25-35
Number of pages11
ISBN (Electronic)9789004302006
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Publication series

NameStudies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics
Volume84
ISSN (Print)0081-8461

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6

Keywords

  • Calques
  • Existential constructions
  • Possessive constructions
  • Structural borrowing

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