Morphophonemics Of Modern Hebrew Routledge Revivals

Routledge Revivals presents a reissue of Noam Chomksy’s MA thesis, written in 1951, and first published in 1979. Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew is a landmark study in linguistics and generative phonology, which provides not only an analysis of morphophonemics but of the entire grammar of Modern Hebrew from syntax to phonology. Professor Chomsky’s goal in this thesis is nothing less than a complete generative grammar of the Hebrew language. This work is of singular importance as it contains the genesis of the author’s work in the field of generative grammar which has had such a profound impact upon the study of linguistics. This reissue of a truly pioneering work will be of great interest to all those concerned with generative grammar and its origins, and with the progression of thought of one of the greatest minds of our time.

Routledge Revivals presents a reissue of Noam Chomksy’s MA thesis, written in 1951, and first published in 1979. Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew is a landmark study in linguistics and generative phonology, which provides not only an analysis of morphophonemics but of the entire grammar of Modern Hebrew from syntax to phonology. Professor Chomsky’s goal in this thesis is nothing less than a complete generative grammar of the Hebrew language. This work is of singular importance as it contains the genesis of the author’s work in the field of generative grammar which has had such a profound impact upon the study of linguistics. This reissue of a truly pioneering work will be of great interest to all those concerned with generative grammar and its origins, and with the progression of thought of one of the greatest minds of our time.

Historical Continuity in the Emergence of Modern Hebrew offers a new perspective on the emergence processes of Modern Hebrew and its relationship to earlier forms of Hebrew. Based on a textual examination of select case studies of language use throughout the modernization of Hebrew, this book shows that due to the unconventional sociolinguistic circumstances in the budding speech community, linguistic processes did not necessarily evolve in a linear manner, blurring the distinction between true and apparent historical continuity. The emergent language’s standardization involved the restructuring of linguistic habits that had initially taken root among the first speakers, often leading to a retreat from early contact-induced or non-classical phenomena. Yael Reshef demonstrates that as a result, superficial similarity to earlier forms of Hebrew did not necessarily stem from continuity, and deviation from canonical Hebrew features does not necessarily stem from change.

"Dr. Reuven Sivan, educator and linguist, was born in Jerusalem. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University. His doctorate was on 'Patterns and Trends of Linguistic Innovations in Modern Hebrew'. He is currently a lecturer in the David Yellin College of Education in Jerusalem and an executive member of the Israel Association for Applied Linguistics (IAAL). Dr. Sivan has written a number of works on the development of the Hebrew language, especially in the modern period, including nine booklets published by the Academy of the Hebrew Language (see list on the inside page). He is continuing his research on the growth and progress of Modern Hebrew. This essay is based mainly on Dr. Sivan's own researches." -- From the back cover.

Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: A, , language: English, abstract: The revival of Hebrew is considered to be the most astonishing revival of a language, which however was not entirely dead, but it was used exclusively for religious matters for a period of 2000 years. It is considered to be a remarkable achievement, one tightly linked to the Hebrew pride. The high nationalism of Hebrew parents led them to using Hebrew as the language to bring up their children. Children were spoken to and taught in Hebrew and this way native speakers of the language were created. After the foundation of the Israel state and the continuous efforts concerning the revival of the language, Hebrew has gone from being an inactive language used only in the religious domain to a living language used by over nine million users. When talking about the study of a language’s revival, we refer to the study of all factors relevant or any obstacles to that revival. Studying various language revival attempts can provide insight on revival techniques, on what actually works and which motives are strongest when attempting to revive a language. Also through comparison between those attempts a lot of useful information about what works can come up.

The emergence of Modern Hebrew as a spoken language constitutes a unique event in modern history: a language which for generations only existed in the written mode underwent a process popularly called “revival”, acquiring native speakers and becoming a language spoken for everyday use. Despite the attention it has drawn, this particular case of language-shift, which differs from the better-documented cases of creoles and mixed languages, has not been discussed within the framework of the literature on contact-induced change. The linguistic properties of the process have not been systematically studied, and the status of the emergent language as a (dis)continuous stage of its historical sources has not been evaluated in the context of other known cases of language shift. The present collection presents detailed case studies of the syntactic evolution of Modern Hebrew, alongside general theoretical discussion, with the aim of bringing the case of Hebrew to the attention of language-contact scholars, while bringing the insights of the literature on language contact to help shed light on the case of Hebrew.

Language Contact and the Development of Modern Hebrew, edited by Edit Doron, presents twenty four different innovative syntactic constructions of Modern Hebrew, attributing them to syntactic change due to the impact of contact languages on previous stages of Hebrew. The contents of this volume was also published as a special double issue of Journal of Jewish Languages, 3: 1-2 (2015).