What Does Modern Hebrew Continue? The Case of the Presentatives [inline-graphic 01] and [inline-graphic 02]

Abstract:This article deals with the continuity between Modern Hebrew and its previous stages, and highlights the important role played by the Hebrew of the Interim period, the period in which the Hebrew was not a spoken language, in the crystallization of Modern Hebrew. The main claim in this article is that when examining whether any linguistic phenomenon in Modern Hebrew is new or continues the previous periods – the Interim period should not be ignored. Examining the origins of the phenomenon only in Classical Hebrew misses the point, and may lead to erroneous conclusions.The article focuses on the presentative particles hinneni and hareni. These presentatives underwent many changes in the Interim period: their classical functions gradually waned, and other functions became dominant. The syntactic distribution of the forms changed as well, and a new construction, hinneni + infinitive, became quite common. With the advent of Modern Hebrew, the constructions and functions that had prevailed in the Interim period persisted. Conversely, the Classical constructions and functions of the presentatives made their way into Modern Hebrew only if they continued to be used in the Interim period. The process undergone by these presentatives illustrates the continuity between Modern Hebrew and its Interim period sources, and demonstrates the importance of studying this period for understanding the development of Modern Hebrew, and the linguistic processes that occurred during its crystallization.