Lab 2  Hebrew Write Up

Note on the transcription: in the questions I posted on e-post I presented the examples in some sort of phonetic transcription in case somebody feels compelled to try to pronounce them. In this write up the examples are all presented in characters that are the result of a one-to-one transliteration from the Hebrew characters (written without the dots, but in plene notation). These examples are, therefore, essentially not pronounceable to the uninitiated. A more detailed explanation of the transliteration used is presented at the end of this write up.

The phenomena for this week:
1. Basic Word Order
2. Pronouns
3. Determiners
4. Argument Optionality
5. Agreement
6. Case

Basic Word Order
In declarative matrix clauses, the canonical order is SVO. 
#131
h-ildh           qwrat                      at             h-spr
the-girl         read:PRES.SG.F        ACC          the-book
The girl is reading the book.
VSO is also a commonly seen order. 
#137
qwrat                       h-ildh                    at                   h-spr 
read:PRES.SG.F          the-girl                 ACC                the-book
The girl is reading the book.
However, all other word orders, though perhaps less common, are also grammatical in appropriate contexts. Some of these sound odd out of context but not impossible in the way reading the book the girl is. It seems that in some of the linguistic literature some of these word orders are ruled out, but they sound OK to me. I will attempt to provide attested examples of all of these orders, though for the purposes of keeping the lexicon and grammar simple, I will probably incorporate into the grammar the concocted examples presented here rather than the real life sentences I find, even though these particular examples may be unlikely to occur in real life. As I continue working on this project if I become convinced that indeed some of these sentences are not grammatical, I will revise my set of examples.
SOV:

#126
h-ildh                at                    h-spr                   qwrat
the-girl              ACC                the-book             read:PRES.SG.F
The girl is reading the book.

Here are examples from the internet:

abl hia  at      yini-h        hepilh
but she ACC   eyes-hers   turn_down:HIFIL.PAST.3SG.F
But she turned down her eyes.
From: http://www.maccabifans.co.il/forum/index.php?s=2dc14818b0ac547fdfc1fa87c58dd625&showtopic=16067&st=60

mbli       e-em                                  lb                hwa  at      yini-w      ycm
without  that-put:PAAL.PAST.3SG.M   heart:SG.M  he    ACC  eyes-his  shut:PAAL.PAST.3SG.M
Without noticing it, he shut his eyes.
From: http://www.tzura.co.il/tshsd/yezira.asp?sug=h&codyezira=26132&code=3931

ki           hwa awti la     mbin
because he    me   neg understand:PRES.SG.M
Because he me doesnt understand.
?? ??? ???? ?? ????
From: http://www.tapuz.co.il/blog/print.asp?EntryId=314543
. 
It may be claimed that these are only OK if there is a certain trigger (like but). I have to check this further.

VOS:

#136
qwrat                    at                   h-spr            h-ildh        
read:PRES.SG.F      ACC                the-book      the-girl
The girl is reading the book.

qmw_kn meme                      at    rae            h-mmelh                  h-iwyc                h-cbai e
similarly serve:PIEL.PRES.3SG  ACC head.SG.M the-government.SG.F the-adviser.SG.M the-military.SG.M that
Similarly the prime minister is served by the military adviser who. or: Similarly the military adviser whoserves the prime minister.  the main verb is active, not passive.

This order is definitely OK. I need to find a less convoluted example.

OVS:


#123
at                    h-spr                   qwrat                  h-ildh                     
ACC                the-book              read:PRES.SG.F     the-girl 
The girl is reading the book.

An example from the internet:

at h-spr qrah dr erh awscki lzr ..
ACC the-book read dr. sara osecki lazar
The book was read by Dr. Sara Osecki Lazar..
From: http://www.glz.msn.co.il/glz/programs/sfarim/775E434BCF494FCDAD3BF071CB85FF2E.htm

OSV:

#122
at                    h-spr                       h-ildh           qwrat                      
ACC                the-book                 the-girl         read:PRES.SG.F  
The girl is reading the book.

wpl-im              ani    awhb
wafer-PL.M        I       like:PRES.SG.M
Wafers I like.


When other complements are  present, the complement order is also free. I will present here only some of the possible combinations so as to avoid combinatorial explosion, but it may be assumed that unless specifically stated as prohibited any variation is OK.

Indirect Object  location  free standing preposition:

#128
h-ildh              emh                      at             h-spr                  yl          h-ewlxn
the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F        ACC         the-book            on          the-table
The girl put the book on the table.

#125
emh                          h-ildh              at             h-spr                  yl          h-ewlxn
put:PAST.SG.F            the-girl            ACC         the-book            on          the-table
The girl put the book on the table.

#88
h-ildh              emh                          yl          h-ewlxn                at              h-spr                  
the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F            on         the-table               ACC         the-book            
The girl put the book on the table.

Indirect Object  beneficiary  preposition is prefexied to the NP (note that l+h=l; I still need to figure out what is the best way of glossing this):

#89
h-ildh                     ntnh                     at       h-spr         l-ild
the-girl                   give.PAST.SG.F     ACC  the-book     to.the-boy
The girl gave the book to the boy.

#130
h-ildh                     ntnh                     l-ild                at          h-spr 
the-girl                   give.PAST.SG.F     to.the-boy       ACC      the-book 
The girl gave the book to the boy.

#121
at          h-spr                      h-ildh                     ntnh                        l-ild                
ACC      the-book                the-girl                   give.PAST.SG.F         to.the-boy       
The girl gave the book to the boy. or rather The book the girl gave to the boy. 
I dont think Hebrew has any ditransitives. In any case, the English equivalents are ungrammatical.
#129
*           h-ildh           ntnh                       at        h-ild          at         h-spr                       
             the-girl        give.PAST.SG.F        ACC   the-boy       ACC      the-book
            The girl gave the boy the book.
The auxiliary verb normally appears right in front of the main verb, but that position is also not rigid; some of the order may exhibit a subtle shift in the preferred reading (exhibited in the translation into English). The following three examples are here just for illustrative purposes. I am not including auxiliaries or questions in this weeks testsuite.
#139
h-am         h-ildh      ikwlh               ltt            at      h-spr           l-ild           ?
the-if        the-girl    can:PRES.SG.F   give.INF   ACC   the-book     to.the-boy  ?
May the girl give the book to the boy?

#140
h-am      ikwlh              h-ildh         ltt                       at        h-spr           l-ild            ?
the-if     can:PRES.SG.F  the-girl       give.INF              ACC     the-book     to.the-boy   ?
Can the girl give the book to the boy?

#141
h-am      ikwlh             h-ildh          at        h-spr            ltt             l-ild            ?
the-if     can:PRES.SG.F  the-girl       ACC     the-book      give.INF    to.the-boy   ?
Can the girl give the book to the boy?
The accusative marker at must immediately precede the NP it marks and may not be separated from it. Additional examples pertaining to this marker will be presented in the CASE section.
#131
h-ildh            qwrat                   at                     h-spr
the-girl         read:PRES.SG.F      ACC                  the-book
The girl is reading the book.

#132
*             h-ildh            qwrat                   h-spr                         at                              
               the-girl         read:PRES.SG.F      the-book                   ACC
The girl is reading the book.

#135
mh        hwa           qwra                      ?  
what     he              read:PRES.SG.M       ?
What is he reading?

#124
at               mh        hw            qwra                     ?  
ACC            what     he              read:PRES.SG.M       ?
'What is he reading?' or He is reading WHAT?

When the question word is who rather than what, only the version with the accusative marker is grammatical. This requires further investigation on my part as I am not sure what is going on. The questions above will not be in the current testsuite. In any case, leaving the accuastive marker in its original position is not an option at all:

#134
*                  mh        hw            qwra                      at              ?  
                    what     he              read:PRES.SG.M      ACC           ?
What  is he reading?
A preposition must immediately precede its complement NP and may not be separated from it (except in my sons Hebrew, which is influenced by his English and allows constructions such as: what is this for? which in adult Hebrew are ungrammatical :))
#128
h-ildh              emh                      at             h-spr                  yl          h-ewlxn
the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F        ACC         the-book            on          the-table
The girl put the book on the table.

#127
*           h-ildh              emh                     at         h-spr                h-ewlxn            yl
             the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F       ACC     the-book          the-table           on
The girl put the book on the table.

#138
yl          mh          h-ildh       emh                    at        h-spr         ?
on         what       the-girl     put:PAST.SG.F      ACC     the-book   ?
On what has the girl put the book?

#133
*         mh          h-ildh       emh                    at        h-spr         yl         ?
           what       the-girl     put:PAST.SG.F      ACC     the-book   on         ?
What has the girl put the book on?
Word order with the NP:
The word order within the NP is as follows: determiner, numeral, noun, adjective, demonstrative pronoun, possessive pronoun, other (pp, relative clauses)
ani  qwrat             at     kl  eet            h-spr-im            h-myniin-im             h-alh           eli  m-aitlih.
I   read:PRES.SG.F ACC all six.M.DEP the-book-PL.M  the-intreseting-PL.M the-these.PL my from-Italy 
I am reading all six of my interesting books from Italy.

This word order is fixed. All other word order possibilities for the elements in the above sentence result in ungrammatical sentences. 

Note: I glossed the numeral in the above example, eet, pronounced, sheshet, six.M.DEP, with dep standing for dependent. This is a special form of the numeral which is used when the numeral is modifying a definite noun. I will not attempt to handle the issue of such dependent numeral forms and the related issue of construct nouns at the present. Depending on how things go I may try to tackle it at a later point. So the above sentence will not be included in the current testsuite.

Here are some examples of the relative ordering of some of the elements within the NP that I will use in the current testsuite.

#8
ani qwrat              spr-im          myniin-im.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  book-PL.M    intreseting-PL.M 
I read interesting books.

#120
*          ani qwrat              myniin-im         spr-im
            I    read:PRES.SG.F  intreseting-PL.M book-PL.M
I read interesting books.

#117
ani qwrat                at      h-spr-im               h-myniin-im                h-alh.
I    read:PRES.SG.F   ACC   the-book-PL.M      the-intreseting-PL.M     the-these.PL 
I am reading these interesting books.

#116
*       ani qwrat                at           h-alh           h-spr-im               h-myniin-im.
         I    read:PRES.SG.F   ACC        the-these.PL the-book-PL.M      the-intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading these interesting books.

#119
ani qwrat               at    kl     h-spr-im           h-myniin-im           h-alh.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  ACC all    the-book-PL.M  the-intreseting-PL.M the-these.PL 
I am reading all of these interesting books.

#118
*       ani qwrat               at    h-spr-im            h-myniin-im          h-alh            kl
         I    read:PRES.SG.F  ACC the-book-PL.M  the-intreseting-PL.M the-these.PL all   
I am reading all of these interesting books.

Pronouns
Pronouns in Hebrew do vary by person, number, gender, and case. When the entities referred to are both masculine and feminine the masculine forms are used. I believe that pronouns do have the same distribution as full NPs in Hebrew, but this is something I have to think about some more to make sure. But see the note below the nominative personal pronoun paradigm.
I am presenting the full nominative personal pronoun paradigm here. A sample of the non-nominative paradigms is presented in the Case section. 
Nominative Personal Pronouns:
#100
ani      svwdnv-it           b-awnibrsivh.
I          student-SG.F        in.the-university
I am a student at the university.

#99
ani      svwdnv                b-awnibrsivh.
I          student[SG.M]        in.the-university
I am a student at the university.

#102
at                    svwdnv-it          b-awnibrsivh.
you.SG.F          student-SG.F        in.the-university
You are a student at the university.

#16
ath                     svwdnv                b-awnibrsivh.
you.SG.M            student[SG.M]        in.the-university
You are a student at the university.

#108
hia      svwdnv-it           b-awnibrsivh.
she      student-SG.F        in.the-university
She is a student at the university.

#111
hwa       svwdnv                b-awnibrsivh.
he          student[SG.M]        in.the-university
He is a student at the university.

#48
anxnw      svwdnv-iwt           b-awnibrsivh.
we            student-PL.F            in.the-university
We are students at the university.

#47
anxnw      svwdnv-im           b-awnibrsivh.
we            student-PL.M            in.the-university
We are students at the university.

#104
atn             svwdnv-iwt           b-awnibrsivh.
you.PL.F     student-PL.F            in.the-university
You are students at the university.

#103
atm              svwdnv-im           b-awnibrsivh.
you.PL.M      student-PL.M            in.the-university
You are students at the university.

#110
hn             svwdnv-iwt           b-awnibrsivh.
they.F       student-PL.F             in.the-university
They are students at the university.

#109
hm              svwdnv-im           b-awnibrsivh.
they.M        student-PL.M            in.the-university
They are students at the university.
Note: Corresponding sentences for a non-pronominal NP would look as follows:
#113
rxl             svwdnv-it           b-awnibrsivh.
Rachel      student-SG.F         in.the-university
Rachel is a student at the university.

#106
h-aeh            h-zat           svwdnv-it           b-awnibrsivh.
The-woman   the-this      student-SG.F         in.the-university
This woman is a student at the university.

or

#112
rxl             hia     svwdnv-it           b-awnibrsivh.
Rachel      she     student-SG.F         in.the-university
Rachel is a student at the university.

#105	
h-aeh            h-zat           hia         svwdnv-it           b-awnibrsivh.
The-woman   the-this      she         student-SG.F         in.the-university
This woman is a student at the university.

There are contexts in which the above sentence pairs are almost interchangeable respectively (note, however, that in some other missing copula constructions the pronoun is obligatory and in still others its presence or absence does make a difference in the meaning).

On the other hand, 

#108
hia     svwdnv-it           b-awnibrsivh.
she     student-SG.F         in.the-university
She is a student at the university.

is different from:

#107
hia     hia       svwdnv-it           b-awnibrsivh.
she    she       student-SG.F         in.the-university
It is exactly her who is a student at the univeristy.

I dont think I want to cover any of this in my grammar because it is a very sticky topic. I am just presenting it here because you asked us to think of examples of differing distribution between pronouns and regular NPs, and this contrast occurred to me, but I dont think you had quite that in mind. Or did you?
The rest of the NP
Hebrew does not require a determiner. Common nouns that are not preceded by the definiteness marker ha are indefinite. 
#39
ani qwrat              spr              myniin.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  book-SG.M  intreseting-SG.M 
I am reading an interesting book.

#8
ani qwrat              spr-im          myniin-im.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  book-PL.M    intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading interesting books.
Though Hebrew does not have an equivalent to the indefinite article a (see above), it does have a definite marker, ha(or just h when transliterated), which means the, but its distribution is different from the distrubution of the in English, in that instead of occupying the specifier slot, it prefixes not only the head noun but its modifiers as well  (see Agreement section below for examples). Since Hebrew does have a determiner slot inwo which other determiners fit, I will not refer to the ha as a determiner but as a definiteness marker. Shuly Wintner has a paper in which he analyzes ha as a definite article which attaches to indefinite (DEF-) nominal words (rather than phrases) and renders them DEF+. He proposes a Definiteness Lexical Rule which accomplishes this. More on this in a future write up.
#90
ani qwrat              at          h-spr                 h-myniin.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  ACC      the-book-SG.M  the-intreseting-SG.M 
I am reading the interesting book.

#91
ani qwrat              at        h-spr-im             h-myniin-im.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  ACC     the-book-PL.M    the-intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading the interesting books.

#96
h-spr-im             h-ale            myniin-im         awt-i.
the-books           the-these    interest-PL.M       ACC.pronoun-1SG
These books interest me.
Proper nouns are considered definite and their modifiers must carry the ha marker. The proper nouns themselves do not get marked with the ha marker as they are definite to begin with. However,  the Hebrew equivalent of The Mary I spoke to yesterday is legitimate to the same extent the English one is. Similarly Pretty Rachel is reading a book is OK in Hebrew but it means roughly A pretty Rachel is reading a book. And in the example below, the sentence cant have one of the readings its parallel English sentence The pretty Rachel is reading a book has, namely, that there are several Rachels, and the pretty one is the one reading the book . Rather, it means what the English determinerlessPretty Rachel is reading a book means, which can possibly be paraphrased in English also as Rachel the pretty is reading the book.. In order for the sentence to have the one pretty Rachel among other Rachels meaning, the noun Rachel also has to be marked with the defniteness marker. 
#97
rxl              h-iph         qwra-t                       spr
rachel         the-pretty  read:PRES-SG.F          book
Pretty Rachel is reading a book.
Personal pronouns are not preceded by the definiteness marker as they already are definite. 
#46
at              qwra-t                       spr
you:NOM.SG.F    read:PRES-SG.F          book
You are reading a book.

#98
*          h-at                 qwra-t                       spr
            the-you:SG.F    read:PRES-SG.F          book
You are reading a book.
Demonstrative pronouns may be preceded by the definiteness marker ha as they must agree in definiteness with the noun they modify:
#95
h-ildh    h-hia              qwra-t                       spr
the-girl  the-that.SG.F   read:PRES-SG.F          book
That girl is reading a book.  

In this case the word hia is a demostrative pronoun which functions as a modifier of the  noun and not a personal pronoun, though it happens to have the same form as the corresponding personal pronoun she.  Moreover, these demonstrative pronouns may occur alone to mean that one so the following is also OK:

#93
h-hia              qwra-t                       spr
the-that.SG.F   read:PRES-SG.F          book
That one is reading a book.  
The definteness marker ha attaches to the word it is the definite marker of (I dont know yet whether its a prefix or a clitic or something else). It doesnt occur independently.
#92
*              h      spr-im          h-ale            myniin-im         awt-i.
                  the   books           the-these    interest-PL.M       ACC.pronoun-1SG
These books interest me.

Some one-letter prepositions in Hebrew (as well as some other particles) attach to the word they precede (again, I will punt for now as to their being clitics or not). When the ha follows such a one-letter preposition, it disappears in dotless writiting but its presence is apparent in the pronunciation of the preposition. 

h-ildh              emh                      at             h-spr                 b-arwn
the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F        ACC         the-book            in-closet
The girl put the book in a closet.

Here the PP b-arwn is pronounced b-aron 

#94
h-ildh              emh                      at             h-spr                 b-arwn
the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F        ACC         the-book            in.the-closet
The girl put the book in a closet.

Here the PP b-arwn is pronounced ba-aron, the ba is actually b+ha
In this it is impossible to distinguish the two without the dots. Other examples with a disambiguitating modifier to the noun could be added.

Determiners:

Determiners (other than ha, which I will not treat as a determiner) appear to behave more similarly to their English counterparts in that they appear only once and necessarily before the head noun.

#40
ani qwrat                at      kl     h-spr-im               h-myniin-im
I    read:PRES.SG.F   ACC   all      the-book-PL.M      the-intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading all the interesting books.

But there are complications here too. It seems that at least some determiners that may act as the specifiers of definite nominal phrases may not act as the specifiers of indefinite nominal phrases.
#45
*	ani qwrat                kl     spr-im             myniin-im.
        I    read:PRES.SG.F    all      book-PL.M      intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading all interesting books.

When the determiner is a numeral it must appear in its dependent form when preceding a definite nominal and in its independent form when preceding an indefinite nominal.

#115
ani qwrat                at      eet               h-spr-im               h-myniin-im
I    read:PRES.SG.F   ACC   six.M.DEP     the-book-PL.M      the-intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading the six interesting books.

#44
*	ani qwrat                eet               spr-im            myniin-im
        I    read:PRES.SG.F   six.M.DEP     book-PL.M      intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading six interesting books.

#43
ani qwrat                eeh               spr-im            myniin-im.
I    read:PRES.SG.F   six.M.INDEP   book-PL.M      intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading six interesting books.
This requires additional analysis. I will not cover other determiners right now. 
Argument optionality
Hebrew is most likely closest to the third category: Subjects may be left unexpressed, but not other objects. Subjects may be dropped with some but not all verb forms. The reason I hesitate to state that unequivocally, is that it seems to me that other arguments as well may be dropped in more circumstances than they can in English, though not as easily as subjects. There is no doubt that Hebrew exhibits subject Pro-drop so I will start with that data first:

#36
ani        qrati               spr
I            read:PAST.1SG    book
I read (past) a book.

#59
qrati               spr
read:PAST.1SG    book
I read (past) a book.

In the past tense, verb forms vary according to person and number for the first and second persons. In these cases the subject is usually omitted (though it may be retained for emphasis). 
In cases in which the subject is in the third person (the verb form is unambiguous as to person, number, and gender in the past tense third person forms), the subject may be omitted only in an appropriate context, that is, when the referent is clear. Similarly, in present tense forms, the verb form is ambiguous as to person and the subject may be dropped only in an appropriate context, that is, when the referent is clear.  

#50
ani        qwrat                 spr
I            read:PRES. SG.F   book
I am reading a book.

#58
qwrat               spr
read:PRES. SG.F   book
I/you/she am/are/is reading a book.

The latter is not ungrammatical in and of itself, but it is unacceptable out of context in a way that sentences with a first or second past tense verb form arent. Note that though I indicated in my e-post that the non-Pro-drop cases are OK as examples of ellipsis just like their English counterparts, I realize now that that statement was too narrow, in that the they are less restricted than their English counterparts. Still, I think that to keep matters simple for now I will only deem the true Pro-drops as acceptable. Here are some additional examples of legitimate subjectless constructions, which I will probably not attempt to tackle, at least initially. In some of the following constructions the subject is obligatorily absent or else the sentence has an entirely different meaning. 

#53
hw  hskim                           ym     h-hnhlh                yl      pivwr                 h-ywbd-im
he   agree:PAST.HIFIL.3SG.M  with   the-management  on     laying_off.dep   the-worker-PL.M
He agreed with management to the laying off of the workers.	

#55
hwskm                                 yl      pivwr                  h-ywbd-im
agree:PAST.HUFAL.3SG.M     on    laying_off.DEP    the-worker-PL.M
The laying off of the workers was agreed upon. 

#52
b-sprih           la   mdbr-im
in.the-library neg talk:PRES.PL.M
One shouldnt talk in the libabry. Or It is inappropriate to talk in the library.

#51
b-sprih          hm          la   mdbr-im
in.the-library they.M    neg talk:PRES.PL.M
They do not talk in the library.

#56
la    ql     llmwd     ybrit
neg easy learn.INF Hebrew
It is not easy to learn Hebrew.

#58
qr          b-xwc
cold       in.the-outside
It is cold outside.

#57
zh     qr           b-xwc
this   cold       in.the-outside
This is cold (when it is) outside.

#60
hw     qr           b-xwc
he/it   cold       in.the-outside
It (i.e. this thing or this person) is cold (when it is) outside.	

Other missing arguments:
In Hebrew in lieu of the auxiliary do, the main verb is used in elliptical constructions. I wont handle these for now.

h-am       hwa ntn                     lh          at      h-spr       ? ntn
the-if       he   give:PAST.3SG.M   to.her  ACC    the-book   ? give:PAST.3SG.M
Did he give her the book? He did.

hia       rcth                    llbwe        simlh abl     la    lbeh
she      want:PRES.SG.F   wear:INF dress   but    neg wear:PAST.SG.F
She wanted to wear a dress but didnt.

In colloquial speech it is possible to omit some non-subject arguments in the imperative:

#62
tn!
give:IMP
Give!

#61
eim!
Put:IMP
Put!
Agreement
In Hebrew the subject agrees with the finite verb in person, number, and gender, though not all three features are relevant to all the verb forms.
#22
h-ild                 qwra                       spr
the-boy:SG.M      read:PRES.SG.M       book
The boy is reading a book.

#26
h-ildh                qwra-t                    spr
the-girl:SG           read:PRES-SG.F         book
The girl is reading a book.

#28
h-ild-im           qwra-im                spr
the-boy:PL           read:PRES-PL.M       book
The boys are reading a book.

#31
h-ild-wt           qwra-wt                spr
the-girl:PL           read:PRES-PL.F        book
The girls are reading a book.

#29
h-ild-wt           qra-w                   spr
the-girl:PL           read:PAST-3PL        book
The girls read a book.

#27
h-ild-im           qra-w                   spr
the-boy:PL           read:PAST-3PL        book
The boys read a book.

#36
ani       qra-ti                    spr
I             read:PAST-1SG        book
I read a book.

#10
anxnw     qra-nw                 spr
we              read:PAST-1PL        book
We read a book.


#12
at                    qra-t                        spr
you:SG.F            read:PAST-2SG.F        book
You read a book.

#12
ata                     qra-t                         spr
you:SG.M              read:PAST-2SG.M        book
You read a book.

There is no way to tell the above two sentences apart without the dots. They are pronounced differently.

#18
atm                   qra-tm                    spr
you:PL.M             read:PAST-2PL.M        book
You read a book.

#21
atn                   qra-tn                    spr
you:PL.F             read:PAST-2PL.F        book
You read a book.

#33
hm                 qra-w                   spr
they:M             read:PAST-3PL         book
They read a book.

#35
hn                  qra-w                 spr
they:F              read:PAST-3PL        book
They read a book.

#25
*       h-ildh               qwra                         spr
         the-girl:SG           read:PRES.SG.M         book
The girl is reading a book.

#30
*      h-ild-wt           qwra-t                   spr
        the-girl:PL           read:PRES-SG.F        book
The girls is reading a book.

#6
*       ani        qra-w                    spr
          I              read:PAST-3PL         book
I read a book.

#11
*       anxnw      qra-w                    spr
          we              read:PAST-3PL          book
We read a book.

#13
*       at                       qra-w                    spr
          you:1SG.F              read:PAST-3PL        book
You read a book.

#15
*       ath                     qra-tm                    spr
          you:SG.M              read:PAST-2PL.M        book
You read a book.

#19
*       atm                    qra-tn                    spr
          you:PL.M              read:PAST-2PL.F        book
You read a book.

#20
*       atn                    qra-t                    spr
          you:PL.F              read:PAST-2SG.F        book
You read a book.

#34
*       hn                 qra-tn                    spr
          they:F              read:PAST-2PL.F        book
They read a book.

#32
*       hm                  qra-t                    spr
          they:M              read:PAST-2SG.F        book
You read a book.

How about case? No. 
In Hebrew one can claim that there are more than two cases since prepositions attach to their NP complements and pronouns actually change form depending on the prepositions they combine with. Verbs select for specific prepositions. So one could claim that based on the evidence from pronouns (and the accusative case marker) that Hebrew has a case system that is less impoverished than that of English. Still none of these phenomena constitue case agreement between verbs and any of their arguments.
Hebrew doesnt exhibit agreement between verbs and arguments other than the subject. 
Within the NP Hebrew requires that the head noun agree with some of its modifiers in number, gender, and definiteness. Some of the modfiers the noun must agree with are adjectives and demonstrative pronouns. 
#39
ani qwrat              spr              myniin.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  book-SG.M  intreseting-SG.M 
I am reading an interesting book.

#8
ani qwrat              spr-im          myniin-im.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  book-PL.M    intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading interesting books.

#7
*	ani qwrat              spr              myniin-im.
        I    read:PRES.SG.F  book-SG.M  intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading an interesting book.

#142
*	ani qwrat              spr                myniin-t.
        I    read:PRES.SG.F  book-SG.M    intreseting-SG.F 
I am reading an interesting book.

#49
*	ani qwrat              spr-im          h-myniin-im.
        I    read:PRES.SG.F  book-PL.M    the-intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading interesting books.

#38
ani qwrat              at          h-spr                 h-zh.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  ACC      the-book-SG.M   h-this.SG.M     
I am reading this book.

#37
*	ani qwrat              at          h-spr                 h-zat.
        I    read:PRES.SG.F  ACC      the-book-SG.M   h-this.SG.F     
I am reading this book.

#23
h-ildh             h-iph             w-h-nyimh                    qwra-t             spr
the-girl:SG.F the-pretty:SG.F and-the-pleasant:SG.F read-PRES.SG.F book:SG.M
The pretty and pleasant girl is reading a book.

#24
*	h-ildh             h-iph             w- nyimh              qwra-t             spr
        the-girl:SG.F the-pretty:SG.F and- pleasant:SG.F read-PRES.SG.F book:SG.M
The pretty and pleasant girl is reading a book.
In addition the noun must agree with its determiner in number and gender (and possibly in definiteness depending on our analysis of determiners).  
#43
ani qwrat              eeh                 spr-im          myniin-im.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  six:M.INDEP      book-PL.M    intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading six interesting books.

#42
ani qwrat              ee                  xwbr-wt     myniin-wt.
I    read:PRES.SG.F  six:F.INDEP      book-PL.F    intreseting-PL.F 
I am reading six interesting booklets.

#41
*	ani qwrat              ee                 spr-im          myniin-im.
        I    read:PRES.SG.F  six:F.INDEP      book-PL.M    intreseting-PL.M 
I am reading six interesting books.

Case
Hebrew has a case system that is similar in its poverty to that of English. Only pronouns decline, and there is no universal agreement in the literature that even they do. For the time being I will assume that the notion of case is relevant to Hebrew and will label the data accordingly.  The number of cases is at least two and, depending on the analysis of prepositions, three or quite a few (one for every preposition in the language). The pattern is nominative-accusative in that the subjects of transitive and intransitive verbs have the same form (nominative without any marker). The direct objects of transitive verbs are analyzed as having accusative case (though in the case of indefinite nouns there is no marking of case). Direct object NPs when definite must be preceded by the accusative marker at. I have labeled this marker ACC, following some of the literature, but this is by no means the only label it carries in the literature. Some papers refer to it as the direct object marker or the definite direct object marker, some label it OM,  and still others analyze it as a preposition. 
#63
ani                            qwrat               at      h-spr.
pronoun:NOM:SG.F    read:PRES.SG.F   ACC    the-book:3SG.M 
I am reading the book
When the direct object is a personal pronoun, the at marker is incorporated into the pronoun. 
#67
ani                            qwrat               awtw.
pronoun:NOM:SG.F    read:PRES.SG.F   pronoun:ACC.3SG.M 
I am reading it.

#64
ani                            qwrat               awth.
pronoun:NOM:SG.F    read:PRES.SG.F   pronoun:ACC.3SG.F 
I am reading it.

#65
ani                            qwrat               awtm.
pronoun:NOM:SG.F    read:PRES.SG.F   pronoun:ACC.3PL.M 
I am reading them.

#66
ani                            qwrat               awtn.
pronoun:NOM:SG.F    read:PRES.SG.F   pronoun:ACC.PL.F 
I am reading them.

#68
at                              rwah              awti.
pronoun:NOM:SG.F    see:PRES.SG.F   pronoun:ACC.1SG 
You see me.

#69
ath                              rwah                awtnw.
pronoun:NOM:SG.M     see:PRES.SG.M   pronoun:ACC.1PL 
You see us.

#70
atm                             rwa-im             awtn.
pronoun:NOM:PL.M     see:PRES-PL.M      pronoun:ACC.3PL.F 
You see them.

#71
atn                              rwa-wt             awtn.
pronoun:NOM:PL.F     see:PRES-PL.F       pronoun:ACC.3PL.F 
You see them.

#84
hn                              rwa-wt              awtk.
pronoun:NOM:PL.F     see:PRES-PL.F       pronoun:ACC.2SG.F 
They see you.

#84
hn                             rwa-wt              awtk.
pronoun:NOM:PL.F    see:PRES-PL.F       pronoun:ACC.2SG.M 
They see you.

#80
hn                              rwa-wt              atkn.
pronoun:NOM:PL.F     see:PRES-PL.F       pronoun:ACC.2PL.F 
They see you.

#79
hn                            rwa-wt              atkm.
pronoun:NOM:PL.F    see:PRES-PL.F       pronoun:ACC.2PL.M 
They see you.

#81
*           hn                            rwa-wt              atm.
             pronoun:NOM:PL.F    see:PRES-PL.F       pronoun:NOM.2PL.M 
They see you.

Prepositions:

#89
 h-ildh                     ntnh                     at       h-spr        l-ild
the-girl                   give.PAST.SG.F     ACC  the-book     to.the-boy
The girl gave the book to the boy.

#128
h-ildh              emh                          yl          h-ewlxn                at            h-spr                  
the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F            on         the-table               ACC         the-book            
The girl put the book on the table.
When the presonal pronoun is the complement of a preposition, the preposition is always incorporated into the pronoun (even when the presposition is a free standing one when combining with nouns).
#89
h-ildh                     ntnh                     at     h-spr       l-w
the-girl                   give.PAST.SG.F     ACC  the-book  to-pronoun.3SG.M
The girl gave the book to him.

#77
h-ildh                     ntnh                     at     h-spr       l-nw
the-girl                   give.PAST.SG.F     ACC  the-book  to-pronoun.1PL
The girl gave the book to us.

#75
h-ildh                     ntnh                     at     h-spr       l-hm
the-girl                   give.PAST.SG.F     ACC  the-book  to-pronoun.3PL.M
The girl gave the book to them.

#76
h-ildh                     ntnh                     at     h-spr       l-i
the-girl                   give.PAST.SG.F     ACC  the-book  to-pronoun.1SG
The girl gave the book to me.

#74
h-ildh              emh                          yl-iw                              at            h-spr                  
the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F            on-pronoun:3SG.M         ACC         the-book            
The girl put the book on him/it.

#72
h-ildh              emh                          b-w                               at            h-spr                  
the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F            in-pronoun:3SG.M         ACC         the-book            
The girl put the book in him/it.

#73
h-ildh              emh                          yl-i                              at            h-spr                  
the-girl            put:PAST.SG.F            on-pronoun:1SG         ACC         the-book            
The girl put the book on me.

Transliteration:
a
?
b
?
g
?
d
?
h
?
w
?
z
?
x
?
v
?
i
?
k
?
l
?
m
?
n
?
s
?
y
?
p
?
c
?
q
?
r
?
e
?
t
?
Hebrew also uses 5 final characters that are used in lieu of their non-final counterparts at the end of a word, as follows:
Roman
Final
Non-final
k
?
?
m
?
?
n
?
?
p
?
?
c
?
?

For the purposes of this project, the final character will be mapped to the same Roman character its non-final counterpart maps to. So for example, the character p represents here both the Hebrew letter ? and the final letter ?.The latter has to be used when it appears in word final position, the former appears everywhere else in the word. This makes the transliterated material easier to read as it minimizes the number of phonologically unintuitive mappings, and all the examples I will use will be such that using the same Roman character for the final and non-final Hebrew counterparts will not result in any loss of information. In real life, in the vast majority of cases indeed this strategy will not result in any loss of information since the Hebrew non-final and final letter pairs are in complementary distribution to each other. If we wanted to transliterate our Roman characters back to Hebrew, there would be a rule that would map all word final occurrences of p to the final character ? and all other occurrences of p to the non-final character ?. So a word transliterated as kwp, transliterated back to Hebrew would be written as???  rather than ??? while a word transliterated as pil would be transliterated back to Hebrew as ??? rather than ??? . However, in real life, this strategy will not work 100%. Here is why. In Hebrew the same character,  ? , represents the sounds p and f. The pronunciation of the letter depends on its position in the word. While the non-final ?  is sometimes pronounced as p and sometimes as f, the final ? is always pronounced as f. No Hebrew word ends with the p sound so this makes sense. So if we have a word transliterated as kwp it would be pronounced as either kof or kuf but never kop or kup.  However, this assumption cannot be maintained with foreign words. Since some foreign words do end with a p sound and since the final ? is pronounced as an f, these foreign words are spelled with the rnon-final ?. For example, the foreign name Philip would be rendered in Hebrew as ?????. The non-final ? in this case represents the initial f sound as well as the final p sound. This word is not spelled ????? because such a spelling would mean that the name is to be pronounced as Filif or Pilif but not Filip. It is customary to spell such foreign words and acronyms ending with a p with the non-final charcater. So using the same character to transliterate the final and non-final characters as p would result in a loss in this case as the word pilip when transliterated back to Hebrew would be rendered as ????? as every word final occurrence of a p is to be transliterated back to Hebrew as ? 
So why do I chose to use the same characters for the final and non-final characters? The transliteration is not that easy to read. Adding another 5 charcaters that are phonologically unrelated to the underlying Hebrew sounds would make my reading of the transliterations even harder. The real solution to this problem is to move to a unicode representation that would allow us to also view the original Hebrew characters. But in the absence of that possibility I prefer to simply avoid examples which do not contain foreign words ending with characters for which the notation would make a difference. Another solution would be to add a phonological representation line, but that has its own drawbacks implementation-wise which I wont get into now.

Inflection:

Assuming an undotted text, the visible inflection is as follows. 
