The Concept of 'Grammatical Words' as Reflected in the Works of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra

The group of grammatical words1 used by Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra in his writings overall2 includes the words ’bl “but”, ’wlm “but, however", ’”r “after", ’k “but, only", ’kn “indeed", ’l “to”, ’”l “at", ’šr “that”, b “in", byn “between", bšbyl “for", “w” “except", “rm “not yet", k “as, like", kbr “already", kmw “like", kn “so, thus", kpy “as, like", l “to", lbd “alone", lkn “therefore", lm”n “for the sake of/so as to", mn “from", ngd “against", nwk” “in the face of", “bwr “in order that", “d “until, up to", “l “on”, “m “with", qwdm “before, previously", rq “only", twk “within", t”t “under" and tmwr “in the place of".3 Ibn Ezra did not use the grammatical terms prevailing in modern Hebrew, such as mylym dqdwqywt grammatical words‘, mylwt y”s prepositions‘, mylwt “ybwr or mylwt qyšwr conjunctions‘, etc., but sorted these words into groups that he labelled “bdym slaves‘, mlwt “nyyn words of matter‘ and ’wtywt “nyyn letters of matter‘, mlwt ““m words of sense‘ and mlwt dbq words of adhesion‘. These terms appeared in his writings as the topic and context required. Examination of Ibn Ezra‘s works shows that by these terms he meant the words that constitute a third word class, neither nouns nor verbs. This class includes prepositions (independent and clitic), conjunctions, adverbs and interjections. The definitions change from one work to another, as do the groups of words that the labels refer to, so that some grammatical words may belong to more than one group according to Ibn Ezra‘s definitions.