A conjunctive waw or vav conjunctive (Hebrew: ו' החיבור ''vav hakhivur'') is the use of Hebrew
vav (letter)
Waw/Vav ( "hook") is the sixth letter of the Semitic abjads, including
Phoenician ''wāw'' ,
Aramaic ''waw'' ,
Hebrew '' waw/vav'' ,
Syriac ''waw'' ܘ
and Arabic '' wāw'' (sixth in abjadi order; 27th in modern Arabic order).
It represe ...
as a
conjunction
Conjunction may refer to:
* Conjunction (grammar), a part of speech
* Logical conjunction, a mathematical operator
** Conjunction introduction, a rule of inference of propositional logic
* Conjunction (astronomy), in which two astronomical bodies ...
to join two parts of speech. It is distinct from
waw-consecutive The vav-consecutive or waw-consecutive (Hebrew וי״ו ההיפוך) is a grammatical construction in Biblical Hebrew. It involves prefixing a verb form with the letter waw in order to change its tense or aspect.
Prefix vs. suffix conjugations
...
which is a
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
construction.
Conjunction of two nouns
Primarily two
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s may be joined by conjunctive vav without equation, for example ''Moshe v-Aron'' ("Moses and Aaron"). Conjunctive vav may however indicate
hendiadys
Hendiadys (; a Latinized form of the Greek phrase (') 'one through two') is a figure of speech used for emphasis—"The substitution of a conjunction for a subordination". The basic idea is to use two words linked by the conjunction "and" instea ...
where two nouns are equated. An example is found in two examples from
Leviticus 25 where the nouns ''ger'' "stranger," and ''toshav'' "sojourner," are joined by conjunctive waw and usually construed as a hendiadys. However, in Numbers 35:15, each noun is accompanied by the repeated
preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
al prefix ''lo-'' "to," as in "to-the stranger and (''vav'') to-the sojourner," which indicates two distinct concepts.
Conjunction of two verbs
Waw-conjunctive may also be used or omitted between two verbs. In imperative sentences such as "sit and wait" the use of the waw between the two verbs is particularly common in
maskilic literature, but there are no clear cut semantic considerations regulating the use of vav conjunctive.
[Lily Kahn ''The verbal system in late enlightenment Hebrew'' p271]
References
Hebrew grammar
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