| Functioning as a verb, adverb, adjective, or noun, the infinitive absolute serves as an element of Biblical Hebrew grammar for which no analogous component exists in modern Indo-European languages such as English. The most frequent employment of the infinitive absolute is in "paronomastic" combination with cognate finite verbs of the same verbal root. The infinitive absolute also apparently functions verbally as a substitute for finite verbs.;Traditional treatments of the infinitive absolute are primarily descriptive. Reference grammars state that infinitives absolute appear in certain inductively-derived categories of meaning and that the paronomastic infinitive expresses emphasis of some kind. Following traditional approaches, the interpreter must decide what type and degree of emphasis, if any, a given paronomastic infinitive absolute conveys.;Such an ad hoc interpretative technique inevitably generates disagreement on the various categories of meaning of the paronomastic infinitive, the nature of the emphasis the paronomastic construction communicates, and the meaning of stand-alone, independent infinitives absolute. In contrast, the present study offers a completely new, holistic investigation into the meaning of the verbal infinitive absolute in Biblical Hebrew. Overarching categories of investigation derive from contemporary research into the cross-linguistic phenomenon of modality.;Interaction with both modern linguistics texts and traditional Hebrew grammatical works frames findings within the parameters of both fields of inquiry. In addition, a computerized database accumulates data from every verbal infinitive absolute passage in the Hebrew Bible. The product is a comprehensive data set that enables meaningful statistical analysis.;Collected data strongly imply that the paronomastic infinitive absolute accents the modality of its cognate finite verb. In the minority of cases when the cognate verb is non-modal, infinitival root repetition emphasizes the verbal idea. On the whole, prose and poetry employ the paronomastic infinitive similarly, though infinitive usage in narrative and discourse differs appreciably. A statistically significant relationship exists between modal profile on one hand and the relative social status of speaker and listener on the other. Non-verb-initial word order is essentially a marker for paronomastic infinitive absolute modality, and the independent infinitive absolute is a highly modal verb form. |
