The pluralis excellentiae is the name given by early grammarians of Hebrew, such as Wilhelm Gesenius, to a perceived anomaly in the grammatical number and syntax in Hebrew. In some cases it bears some similarity to the pluralis majestatis or "royal plural". However the idea of excellence is not necessarily present:
Contents
- Abstract plurals with feminine singular
- Behemothbeasts or great beast
- Intensive plurals with masculine or feminine singular
- Objections
- Other correspondence of number in Hebrew
- Related grammatical constructs
- References
Of (c): the pluralis excellentiae or maiestatis, as has been remarked above, is properly a variety of the abstract plural, since it sums up the several characteristics belonging to the idea, besides possessing the secondary sense of an intensification of the original idea. It is thus closely related to the plurals of amplification, treated under e, which are mostly found in poetry.
Hebrew distinguishes grammatical number by endings in nouns, verbs and adjectives. A grammatical phenomenon occurs with a small number of Hebrew nouns, such as elohim "great god" and behemoth "giant beast", whereby a grammatically redundant plural ending (-im, usually masculine plural, or -oth, usually feminine plural) is attached to a noun, but the noun nevertheless continues to take singular verbs and adjectives.
Abstract plurals with feminine singular
Abstract plurals with -im endings such as "uprightness," "blessedness," "sweetness," "youth," "strength," etc. take feminine singular verbs and adjectives.
Behemoth—beasts or great beast
Sometimes the normal plural of a noun and the intensive plural are the same. For example behem, "beast" singular, conjugates with the common feminine plural -oth, and behemoth + plural verb in, for example, the Genesis account of Noah's Ark indicates "beasts" plural. But in the Book of Job behemoth + singular verb indicates "giant beast", "Behemoth." Leviathan is also intensive: "You crushed the heads of Leviathan. You gave it as food for people, for(?) beasts".
Intensive plurals with masculine or feminine singular
An adjective qualifying a noun in the plural of excellence is more often found in the singular than in the plural. Examples of the singular include
Objections
Against this are objections such of that of the grammarian and Messianic Jewish missionary C. W. H. Pauli (1863) that Gesenius had misunderstood the grammar and perpetuated a hoax.
Other correspondence of number in Hebrew
Singular nouns may also take plural adjectives.
Related grammatical constructs
Distinct from the apparent "plural" of nouns with singular verbs is the "plural of deliberation", for "Let us make man in our own image".