---
title: "An overview of recent developments in the description of Biblical Hebrew relevant — Merwe 2004"
description: "Not read: the PDF is not in the library. Cited by 1 paper here."
authors: ["Christo H. J. van der Merwe"]
year: 2004
venue: "Acta Theologica"
source: "https://doi.org/10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462"
doi: "10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462"
licence: "CC BY (per OpenAlex/publisher; Acta Theologica)"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/merwe-2004-overview-recent-developments-description-biblical/"
---
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# An overview of recent developments in the description of Biblical Hebrew relevant to Bible translation

**Authors:** [Christo H. J. van der Merwe](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/christo-h-j-van-der-merwe/) · **Year:** 2004 (Acta Theologica 22/1, issue dated 2002) · **Venue:** Acta Theologica **Link:** [doi.org/10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462](https://doi.org/10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462) · not in the library (PDF not downloaded, 2026-10-17) · **Licence:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) (per publisher/OpenAlex)

[**4** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2078540007) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 · [**1** citations in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/merwe-2004-overview-recent-developments-description-biblical/cited-by/) of the 140,884 papers whose bibliographies we read · [Acta Theologica](https://openalex.org/S79873615) · [licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462)
- [PDF](https://www.ajol.info/index.php/actat/article/download/5462/29600)
- [DOI 10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462](https://doi.org/10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2078540007)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Christo H. J. van der Merwe](https://openalex.org/A5065948470) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7217-2870) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2484316119) · h 8 · 348 citations · 57 works

Citations and author metrics: OpenAlex, 2026-10-14; authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

**Not read: the PDF is not in the library.** From the title and the author's other surveys: a review, for Bible translators, of what linguistics changed in the description of Biblical Hebrew in the 1990s — the verbal system (aspect, tense, discourse functions of wayyiqtol and weqatal), word order and information structure (topic and focus in the pre-verbal slot), discourse markers (וְהִנֵּה, וַיְהִי, וְעַתָּה, כִּי), and cognitive-semantic lexicography (the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew). Van der Merwe is a co-author of a reference grammar and of several studies of discourse particles. Check against the text.

## Ideas

- I2. (to check) Discourse markers as a closed class with functions rather than glosses: one table (marker → function → our rule → count) in the discourse chapter.

## For Mova

- I1. (to check) Use the survey as a checklist for the manual: every topic it names should have a section in `languages/hbo/` and a statement of how Mova handles it.

I1 is an audit of `languages/hbo/` chapters 6, 8, 9 and 10; I2 goes into `09-discourse.md` and `src/prag.rs`. A survey paper: its value is the map, not new data. Re-read once the PDF is in.

Topics[Hebrew & Aramaic](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/hebrew-aramaic/) · [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/)

## Cite

Cite as Christo H. J. van der Merwe. 2004. An overview of recent developments in the description of Biblical Hebrew relevant to Bible translation. Acta Theologica.

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462](https://doi.org/10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462)

```bibtex
@inproceedings{merwe2004overview,
  title = {{An overview of recent developments in the description of Biblical Hebrew relevant to Bible translation}},
  author = {Christo H. J. {van der Merwe}},
  booktitle = {Acta Theologica},
  year = {2004},
  doi = {10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.4314/actat.v22i1.5462}
}
```

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