About the Faculty

Elitzur Avraham Bar-Asher Siegal
Semitics
Office: HGS B54
elitzur.bar-asher@yale.edu
Phone: (203) 436-8187

Curriculum Vitae

Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal (B.A. Hebrew University, 2002; M.A 2007, Ph.D.
2009 Harvard University) joined the Department as a visiting lecturer in
2005 and is currently the lector in Semitics. Elitzur is interested in different aspects of linguistics, including historical and comparative linguistics, syntax and semantics. In addition, he works in the fields of the Philosophy of Language and the History of Linguistics, with a special interest in the philosophical foundations of Ferdinand de Saussure's theories. His dissertation, "A Theory of Argument Realization and its Application to Features of the Semitic Languages," deals with questions of predications and grammatical relations cross-linguistically and among Semitic languages in particular (primarily Hebrew and Aramaic, but also Akkadian, Arabic and Ethiopic). He has published several articles in these fields, as well as in those of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible.

He has been teaching at Yale "Introduction to Comparative Semitics,", "Aramaic Survey", "Intermediate Biblical Hebrew", "Syriac", "Biblical Egyptian and Targumic Aramaic," and "Introduction to Babylonian Aramaic." In 2009-2010 he will be teaching "Linguistic Topics in Akkadian", "Advanced Syriac", "Reading in Babylonian Aramaic texts" and "Introduction to Ugritic".

Recent and forthcoming publications:

• “On the Passiveness of One Pattern in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic – a Linguistic and Philological Discussion”, Journal of Semitic Studies (forthcoming)
• “How an Empiricist Founds a New Science: An Epistemological Inquiry in Ferdinand de Saussure’s Linguistic Theory” in Arrivé Michel (ed.), Du côté de chez Saussure, A l'occasion de ses anniversaires (1857: naissance, 1907: premier Cours de linguistique générale), Limoges: Lambert-Lucas, 2008: 23-38)
• “Dual Pronouns in Semitics and an Evaluation of the Evidence for their Existence in Biblical Hebrew,” Ancient Near Eastern Studies 46(forthcoming 2009), 32-49
• “The Imperative Forms of Proto Semitic and a New Perspective on Barth’s Law,” Journal of American Oriental Society128 (2009), 233-255
• “Linguistic Markers in the Book of Ruth,” Shnaton – An Annual for Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies 18: 25-42
•  “The Notion of Tradition in the History of Linguistics,” Review Essay, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 17 (2007), 277-288
• “The Origin and the Typology of the Pattern qtil li in Syriac and Babylonian Aramaic,” A. Mamman, S. Fassberg and Y. Breuer,  (eds.), Sha’arey Lashon: Studies in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Jewish Languages in Honor of Moshe Bar-Asher, Hebrew University,  vol. II, 360-392 [in Hebrew]
•  “An Explanation of the Etiology of the Name Ammon in Genesis 19, Based on Evidence from Nabataean Aramaic and the Safaitic Arabian Dialect,” Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 17-20 (2004-2007),  3-10