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1. Definiteness marking Definite noun phrases (i.e., noun phrases that carry a presupposition of uniqueness in the singular or of maximality in the plural) are morphologically marked in Modern Hebrew in one of several ways. In the simplest case, the definite-indefinite distinction is encoded by the respective presence or absence of the definite article -ה ha-, which is prefixed to the noun: (1) הספר ha-sefer the-book ‘the book’ (2) sefer ספר book ‘a book’ Other determiners that encode definiteness are (postnominal) demonstratives and the prenominal determiner אותו ʾ oto ‘same, that…

The term ‘determiner’ denotes various kinds of elements—articles, quantifiers, numerals, and demonstratives—whose semantic function is to specify the referential or quantificational properties of a noun phrase. Syntactically and morphologically, it is a very heterogeneous category, and it is not obvious that all these items actually do in fact belong under a single category label. Determiners in Modern Hebrew are optional; bare nouns are fully grammatical in both argument and non-argument positions. The majority of determiners in Modern Hebrew prec…

1. Syntax and morphology The Hebrew definite article, -ה ha- ‘the’, is a bound prefix attached to nouns, adjectives, demonstratives, and some pronouns. While the semantic and pragmatic factors governing its distribution are by and large similar to those governing the distribution of definite articles in many other languages, the Hebrew article is also subject to several language-specific morphosyntactic constraints. While in Classical Hebrew the article alternated between the phonologically-conditioned variants -הַ ha-, -הֶ hε-, and -הָ hå̄-, in Modern Hebrew it is almos…

1. Introduction A ‘copula’ is an element that acts as a ‘link’ between the subject and the predicate; in the case of Modern Hebrew, it appears in clauses containing a non-verbal predicate. In the past or future tense, the copula is an inflected form of the verb היה haya ‘to be’ (example (1) below). In the present tense the copula is homophonous with a third person nominative pronoun (example (2) below). Unlike the past/future copula, the present tense copula does not inflect for person, but only for number and gender (example (3) below). However, it is debatable wh…