The Semantics of רַע (bad) in Ancient and Mishnaic Hebrew

In this monograph, the semantics of the word רַע (bad) is examined across the corpus of Ancient Hebrew and the Mishnah. The study takes cognitive linguistic theories as its theoretical base and proceeds by first examining the schematic content that רַע tends to modify (as an adjective). It moves on to map the lexical semantic domains of רַע and then examines רַע with reference to some major terms within these domains. The study concludes by presenting a thorough description of רַע derived from the analysis. It relates these findings to the previous studies on רַע as well as the lexica before suggesting how a new entry on רַע might be written. In addition to the important findings on רַע, the study points to what is likely an important difference between עָוֺן and אָוֶן which requires further investigation.