44j The PEM NT Peshitta Morphological Coding Scheme (PEM) 

 

 

The Magiera NT Peshitta Morphological database (PEMM) is stored with each morphological form occupying one record in the database. You do your searches on these forms. Each form consists of a lemma followed by a "%" (for Aramaic), followed by a series of morphological codes that describe the form in question. For a description of this coding method see the section on Doing Greek and Hebrew Searches .

 

The table appearing in the "Possible Code Constructions" section below details all possible code types for The PEM Peshitta  Morphological Database. All fields are required. The '+' sign is required and separates primary codes from secondary codes. It provides an easy way to skip over primary codes for cases in which you are interested only in secondary codes, or to skip over secondary codes. All primary code fields are one character wide and all secondary fields are two characters wide except for the [suffix pgn] which is three. For most searches, secondary codes are not of much interest and can be skipped by terminating the search string with an asterisk ("*") after the primary codes.

 

To optimize search algorithms and make complex searches feasible with minimal effort we have opted for a fixed field format. That is, each part of speech has all possible tags even though in some cases, especially with verbs, this results in a lot of placeholder tags. This may seem awkward at first, but the less frequently used tags are at the end and a search pattern can be terminated by a wildcard asterisk ("*") at any time to catch all forms.

 

Reducing the Amount of Space Used by the Codes

 

Because of the fixed-field format and the abundance of "optional" codes, the PEM morphology code strings can become quite long and the text displayed in the Browse Window can take up a lot of space. Some of the codes are composed mostly of placeholders (the x's) and take up valuable screen real estate. To alleviate this problem BibleWorks allows you to tailor how the secondary codes are displayed. If you RIGHT click on any Aramaic Morphological string in the Browse Window you will see a context menu with an option labeled "Supplemental Hebrew Codes." This option has a submenu with three selections:

§         No Supplemental Codes

§         Full Supplemental Codes

§         Condensed Supplemental Codes

 

The last item will display supplemental codes, but only those that are not pure placeholders (x's). In all cases, codes that are not displayed are filled in with a wildcard. This is necessary to insure that all the lemma/code pairs displayed are actually valid searches.

 

Note that you can still double click on collapsed codes, but the results will not be the same. Double-clicking on a collapsed code will result in a wider search because of the embedded wild cards. This is intentional and actually works to your advantage. If you want to hide supplemental codes you probably want them all included in searches anyway and this feature does just that.

Possible Code Constructions

 

The following table lists the required code structures for all possible cases. All parts of speech require all the specified codes, though in many cases the secondary codes will just be placeholders.

 

 

Part of Speech

Width

Possible Codes

Noun

9

[n] [type] [gender] [number] [-] + [suffix pgn]

Particle

6

[P] [type] + [suffix pgn]

Numeral

9

[u] [-] [gender] [number] [-] + [suffix pgn]

Pronoun

9

[p] [type] [person] [gender] [number] + [suffix pgn]

Adjective

7

[a] [gender] [number] +  [suffixpgn]

Verb - participles

10

[v] [stem] [aspect] [gender] [number] [state] + [suffix pgn]

Verb - imperative

9

[v] [stem] [aspect] [gender] [number] +  [suffix pgn]

Verb - infinitive

7

[v] [stem] [aspect] + [suffixpgn ]

Verb - other verbs

10

[v] [stem] [aspect] [person] [gender] [number ] + [suffix pgn]

 

Primary Codes

 

Noun

 

 

n

Type

Gender

Number

State

 

 

c common noun

p proper name

 

m masculine

f feminine

b both

x unspecified

 

s singular

p plural

d dual

x unspecified
   

- unspecified

 

Particle

 

 

P

Type

 

 

-s insep particle

-c conjunction

-d adverb

-i interjection

-p preposition

-g interrogative

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pronoun 

 

p

Type

Person

Gender

Number

 

p personal

s possessive

d demonstrative

t distributive

1 1st person

2 2nd person

3 3rd person

m masculine

f feminine

 

s singular

p plural

 

 

Adjective

 

 

a

Gender

Number

State

 

 

m masculine

f feminine

b both

s singular

p plural

d dual

- unspecified

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Numeral

 

 

u

Type

Gender

Number

State

 

 

- unspecified

m masculine

f feminine

b both

s singular

p plural

d dual

- unspecified

 

 

Verb

 

v

Stem

Aspect

Person

Gender

Number

 

A Aphel

I Eshtaphal

K Ethpaal

B Ethpaial

C Ethpalpel

V Ethpaual

J Ethpeal

D Ettaphal

M Pael

O Pailel

E Pali

F Palpel

P Pauel

N Peal

Q Saphel

R Shaphel

W Taphel

P Active Participle

v Imperative

i Imperfect

c Infinitive

s Passive Participle

p Perfect

 

1 1st per

2 2nd per

3 3rd per

m masc

f fem

c com

s sing

p plural

 

 

Secondary Codes

 

The following table lists the possible "secondary codes" attached to morphological code strings.

 

[suffix] Pronomial/Object Suffixes

Used to indicate pronominal suffix for nouns and object suffix for verbs, but can appear on other forms as well.

 

S

 

Person

Gender

Number

1 1st person

2 2nd person

3 3rd person

x none

m masculine

f feminine

c common

x none

s singular

p plural

x none