Hebrew Search Question

[mtp1032]

I'd like to find all of the masculine, singular, absolute Hebrew nouns that take the feminine plural ending (and vice versa). Using the morphology assistant, I've tried a number of search strings (including ones ending in waw-tav) to no avail -- but I'm not a wiz at this yet.

On a related note, does a mechanism exist to sort search results by frequency?

Thanks, in advance

Michael

[Glenn Weaver]

Hi Michael,

Here is an outline of the tools and steps you would use to conduct this type of search. I haven't explained every step, but I think you will be able to figure it. If not, please let me know. I assume that you are using BibleWorks 8.

First, begin your search on the Command Line. Use the WTM search version. Enter a wildcard for the lemma. The Morph Helper that pops up when you enter words on the Command Line will help you to enter the correct morph codes. (Do not use the separate Morph Assistant.) Once you have entered the morph codes (you do not need secondary codes), end the codes with an asterisk.

Now open the Graphical Search Engine (GSE). When the GSE opens, your Command Line search will automatically be entered in the GSE search. Double-click on the Word box to open it. On the right side of the open Word box is a text entry box labelled "Match the following spec in WTT". This enables you to search for a form in the WTM but specify an exact inflected form in the WTT. In this text box enter an asterisk followed by the feminine ending (generally tav or he). Run the search, and the results appear in the Search Window.

To view the words found in order of frequency, open the Word List Manager (WLM). In the WLM generate a word list using the setting to "Load highlighted words from last query". Now you will have a list of found words, in order of frequency. You will want to look over the list manually, as some words may fit the search pattern but may not actually have feminine endings.

Blessings,

[mtp1032]

Thanks so much.... However, I'm using BW7. If I need BW8 for this kind of search, please let me know and I'll upgrade.

Peace

Michael

[mtp1032]

I followed your instructions (to the letter, I think). However, the results were not what I was hoping to see. Specifically, the query returned 6526 hits of which the vast majority are the canonical masculine plural endings (yod-mem).

So -- Either I'm doing something wrong (not an unheard of alternative) or I will need BW8. If the latter is the case, what feature in BW8, that's not in BW7, will I need in order to justify the upgrade expense to SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed).

Thanks,

Michael

[Adelphos]

You don't need BW8, although I'd highly recommend the upgrade.

In any case, the enclosed query should work with BW7. It does what Glenn suggested. You can tweak it if it doesn't suit your needs exactly.

And as Glenn said, if you want to sort by frequency you should load the results into the WLM.

[mtp1032]

Thanks all for the help. Now, one more favor, perhaps? When executed, the query showed that the Hebrew Bible contains 83 masculine nouns that take the feminine plural ending.

If someone else could conduct a similar search and validate these results I would be very appreciative.

Sincerely (and gratefully),

Michael

[Adelphos]

Well I get 105 verses in 139 hits. This finds all masculine singular absolute nouns with a tav or a mem as the last letter of the word because that is how the query is structured.

This means that you would probably want to weed out words like "yom" (day), for example.

In order to do that you'll need to go through them one by one. Or you could tweak the search to find only hireq-yod-mem endings, and so on and so forth. You can take the query I gave you and build on that to tweak it to the way you want it.

[mtp1032]

Well I get 105 verses in 139 hits. This finds all masculine singular absolute nouns with a tav or a mem as the last letter of the word because that is how the query is structured.

Ahhhh, my bad. I should have been more specific. I was looking for all masculine nouns that, when in the plural, exhibit the feminine ending. To do this, I changed the query you initially suggested from *@n?msa* to *@n?mpa* and omitted the second GSE box.

Blessings,

Michael

[Adelphos]

That makes a lot more sense. I was wondering what you were trying to accomplish the other way.