Verbum Search through Tip of the Day #19

MJ. Smith

Tip 19: Factbook Biblical Person: Lemma: Bible Word Study: Lemma

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The Bible Word Study, reached via clicking on the lemma in the Lemma Section of the Factbook entry for Abraham, is an expansion of the original language information for a particular portion of the references to a person. In our exploration we have been using the Abram personal name for Abraham the person.

From Verbum Help:

[quote]Bible Word Study

Get the definition for any English or original language word in the Bible, along with root, example uses, and more.

Use the Bible Word Study Guide to find in-depth information about a specific English word or lemma in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. The information available in the Guide will depend on the type of word that is entered.^[1]

The sections available in the Bible Word Study are:

Greek lemma	Hebrew/Aramaic lemma	Translation Word
Lemma	Lemma
Translation	Translation
Septuagint Translation
Root	Root
Senses	Senses
Example Uses	Example Uses
Clause Participants	Clause Participants
Case Frames	Case Frames
Preposition Use	Preposition Use
		Topic
		Hebrew Words
		Greek Words
Phrases	Phrases	Phrases
Lemma in Passage	Lemma in Passage	Lemma in Passage
Textual Searches	Textual Searches	Textual Searches
Grammatical Relationships	Grammatical Relationships	Grammatical Relationships

 

From Verbum Help:

[quote]Lemma Section

The Lemma guide section shows information about the lemma entered into the guide and lists lexicons for quick access. It appears in the Bible Word Study guide by default.

The displayed results include:

 

•          A translation ring displaying how the lemma is translated across the range established in the guide. Hover over the ring to take a quick look, or click the ring to open the Translation section.

•          The Genitive form of the lemma for nouns when they are available. Hover over them to get a short description.

•          A pronunciation link, if available . Click to hear the lemma pronounced.

•          A transliteration of the word for those who are not familiar with the original language alphabet.

•          A gloss, that is, a brief and very broad definition for the word.

 

•          A sparkline that shows the distribution and frequency of this lemma across the Old Testament (Hebrew/Aramaic) or New Testament (Greek). If the guide is narrowed to a particular passage, the sparkline will only show the frequency in the chosen passage.

 

•          For verbs, the principle parts will be displayed. Hover over them for the a short description.

Beneath this, entries on that lemma are displayed from the top three prioritized resources that have it as a headword (usually original language lexicons), and any text marked as a gloss in that entry is shown. Click the lexicon abbreviation to open it to the relevant lemma. Click more to show more resources.

If the user has a license for the Morphology Charts interactive, a link to it will appear at the end of the section.[2]

• The Lemma heading line (1) with its sparkline (2) contains the same information as the Lemmas section in Factbook that was clicked to open the Bible Word Study. Well, the same information except for the discrepancy in the count of occurrences, given here as 60.
  
• The detail (3) gives an abbreviation of the lexicon name and the name of the article references. The lexicons appear in priority sequence.
• A “more” feature (4) allows one to see more lexicon entries.
• A link is provided to Morphology Charts (5) a tool useful to original language students. Mouse-over provides a preview:
  
  A right-click opens a minimal Context Menu. A click opens the Morphology chart to the indicated lemma
  
• One may attach a note to the BWS section (6).

Mouse over the abbreviated lexicon name provides a preview pop up:

Similar Search: Lemma in lexicons/dictionaries

One can nearly replicate the results of the section with a Search.
Step 1: Open Search Panel

Step 2: Select Basic Search

Step 3: Try to limit the search to headwords (not an actual option) by selecting heading text, large text, and lemma text. Note: in theory selecting only lemma text should be sufficient but by testing I learned that missed five resources.

Step 4: Select All Passages.

Step 5: Create a temporary collection of lexicons by typing “type:lexicon” into the selection box and selecting 74 resources with type:lexicon

Step 6: Set the search argument to the Hebrew אברם . I copied and pasted. You may also type “h:abram” or click on the keyboard at the right edge of the search argument input box to use a Hebrew keyboard.

Step 7: Run the query.

Note the resources selected match with the exception of the Analytical Lexicon of the Vulgate which is entirely made up of false positive matches. Yes, the resource selection options and the search field options will be covered. But you will find them much easier to understand when you have some familiarity with them from their actual use.

For the compulsive only

Given that a lemma is the headword under which a word is found in a dictionary, it seems “obvious” that searching lemma text should be sufficient. However, the results miss several resources.

Why is Whitaker, Richard, Francis Brown, S.R. (Samuel Rolles) Driver, and Charles A. (Charles Augustus) Briggs. 1906. The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament: from A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and Charles Briggs, based on the lexicon of Wilhelm Gesenius not in the results?  It does have an entry:

What it does not have is tagging for lemma text (1) which one may see from the information panel for the resource. Note that it does have Hebrew headwords explaining why it is picked up in the prioritization of Hebrew lexicon/dictionaries.

I’ve posted Kyle: error in tagging or rule in tagging that is not known to me. requesting an explanation.

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^[1] Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2018).

^[2] Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2018).