Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library (DSSEL)

Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library (DSSEL)

Topics:

DSSEL Lexicons DSSEL LEXICAL FORMS DSSEL Morphological Codes DSSEL Markup Codes Example of Parsing the DSSEL and adding markup data

Lexicons defined for the DSSEL (see Search Window Tutorial for a description of how these are used -- see also Search Window -- Lexicons)
Lexicon	Description
LEXICAL FORMS	The lexeme word form for each morpheme (added between the morphemes).
TEXT WORDS	The words as they appear the in scrolls -- space to space (each of these text words may be composed of morphemes).
MORPHEMES	The smallest unit of parsing in the DSSEL. The morphemes may include in-fixes (they are not base forms).
Lexical Forms (Reconstructed)	Base-form word for each morpheme found in reconstructed text -- added between the morphemes.
Text Words (Reconstructed)	Same as TEXT WORDS above; however, these are reconstructed words.
Morphemes (Reconstructed)	Same as MORPHEMES above; however, these are reconstructed morphemes.
Greek	Lexicon for the few Greek words found in the DSSEL.
English (not texts)	Title and author data in the DSSEL.
English (Word Tags)	Parts of speech codes (created by M. Abegg).
English (Definitions)	English definitions of each morpheme (created by M. Abegg).

DSSEL LEXICAL FORMS

The LEXICAL FORMS added as markup codes (see DSSEL Markup Codes below) have some special features. These codes were prepared by M. Abegg and are based upon his module for the Qumran text that works with Accordance® software. The numbering of LEXICAL FORMS follows the lead of the Hebrew Scripture (BHS) prepared by the Westminster Hebrew Institute. This allows users to search for the same LEXICAL FORM in both the DSSEL and the Hebrew Scripture. With few exceptions, the numbering of LEXICAL FORMS corresponds to the order of lexical forms or lemmas in The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner (KB). However, there are many LEXICAL FORMS that occur in the Hebrew Scripture but not in the DSSEL.

At the end of a LEXICAL FORM you may see @ (Aramaic) or 8. The number 8 designates letters of the alphabet and words that are ambiguous in the determination of the editors of the text editions (lemmas or lexical forms that exist in two or more forms for which there is insufficient context to make a determination).

The DSSEL dictionary was prepared by M. Abegg for the Qumran texts and not for Hebrew Scripture. Thus, many of the LEXICAL FORMS in Hebrew Scripture will not have an entry in the DSSEL dictionary. Also, the definitions often will not be appropriate for Hebrew Scripture because the meanings associated with the words have evolved or shifted focus.

The examples below demonstrate several different LEXICAL FORMS and their dictionary entries:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אָדָם־1

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אָדָם־3

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אֵל

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אֶל

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אַל

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אל־@

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אַל־@

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אֵל־1־@

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אֵל־2־@

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אֵל־4

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אֵל־5

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אל־8

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

LEXICAL FORMS word: אל־8־@

DSSEL Dictionary entry:

DSSEL Morphological Codes

The morphological codes added as mark-up codes were also prepared by M. Abegg. For details see the DSSEL Morphological Codes page.

DSSEL Mark-up Codes

In order to understand many of the features of the WordCruncher Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library (DSSEL), it is helpful to have an understanding of the textual mark-up codes added to the basic transliterated characters of the DSSEL. The example below is from Column I of 1QS. This example demonstrates the transformation of the original scroll image into the marked-up DSSEL.

Scroll Image

The image below is only one corner of the image in the DSSEL. It has been cropped and zoomed to display the first three lines of Column I of 1QS.

Text Window image from 1QS I:1-5

The Text Window image (a cropped portion of a window) below displays the transliterated characters of the image above. Even the spacing of the characters mimics the original scroll. The reconstructed characters are displayed in light grey.

Mark-up codes added to transliterated 1QS I:1-3

One of the powerful features of the DSSEL is that the different words found in the database are assigned to different lexicons (see Search Window Tutorial for details on using lexicons). The columns in the table below are summarized into their search lexicons.

Lexicon	Columns Below
MORPHEMES	Morphemes -- Word
Morphemes (Reconstructed)	Morphemes -- Reconstructed
LEXICAL FORMS	Lexical Forms -- Word
Lexical Forms (Reconstructed)	Lexical Forms -- Reconstructed
Word Tags	Part of Speech
Definitions	Definitions

Example of Parsing the DSSEL and adding markup data
Line	Morphemes		Lexical Forms		Part of Speech	Definitions	Comment
Line	Word	Recon- structed	Word	Recon- structed	Part of Speech	Definitions	Comment
1	ל		ל		Heb PARTICLE Prep	to
	]שים						the end of a word -- data is missing
	ל		ל		Heb PARTICLE Prep	to
	ח̇י		חַיִּים		Heb NOUN comm masc plur const	life
	ו				Heb SUFFIX 2 masc		suffix -- no LEXICAL FORMS codes
		ספר		סֵפֶר	Heb NOUN comm masc sing const	scroll document	reconstruction
	סר]כ		סֶרֶךְ		Heb NOUN comm masc sing const	rule, policy, list, order, army	partial reconstruction
	ה		ה		Heb PARTICLE art	the	prefix
	יחד		יַחַד_9		Heb NOUN comm masc sing	Yahad, community	9 is a meaning code
	ל		ל		Heb PARTICLE Prep	to	prefix
	דרוש		דרשׁ		Heb VERB qal infinitiveConst	to seek, examine, interpret
2	אל		אֵל_5		Heb NOUN comm masc sing	God, god, divine being
	ב̇[		בּ		Heb PARTICLE prep	in, at, with	suffix and the start of missing data
	כול		כֹּל		Heb NOUN comm masc sing const	all, whole, everyone, everything	partial reconstruction
		לב		לֵב	Heb NOUN comm sing	heart, mind	reconstruction
		ו		ו	Heb PARTICLE conj	and	reconstruction
		ב		בּ	Heb PARTICLE prep	in, at, with	reconstruction
		כול		כֹּל	Heb NOUN comm masc sing const	all, whole, everyone, everything	reconstruction
		נפש		נֶפֶשׁ	Heb NOUN comm fem sing	soul, person, self	reconstruction
	]ל̇		ל		Heb PARTICLE prep	to	prefix and the end of missing data
	עשות		עשׂה_1		Heb VERB qal infinitiveConst	to do, make
	ה		ה		Heb PARTICLE art	the
	טוב		טֹוב_1		Heb ADJ ,asc sing	good, pleasant, fine
	ו		ו		Heb PARTICLE conj	and	prefix
	ה		ה		Heb PARTICLE art	the	prefix
	ישר		יָשָׁר		Heb ADJ masc sing	straight, correct, upright
	ל		ל		Heb PARTICLE prep	to	prefix
	פני		פָּנֶה		Heb NOUN comm both plur const	front, face, before
	ו				Heb SUFFIX 3 masc sing		suffix
	כ		כּ		Heb PARTICLE prep	as like	prefix
	אשר		אֲשֶׁר		Heb PARTICLE rel	which
3	צוה		צוה		Heb VERB piel perf 3 masc sing	to command
	ב		בּ		Heb PARTICLE prep	in, at, with	prefix
	יד		יָד		Heb NOUN comm fem sing const	hand, part, power
	מושה		מֹשֶׁה		Heb NOUN proper	Moses
	ו		ו		Heb PARTICLE conj	and	prefix
	ב		בּ		Heb PARTICLE prep	in, at, with	prefix
	יד		יָד		Heb NOUN comm fem sing const	hand, part, power
	כול		כֹּל		Heb NOUN com masc sing const	all, whole, everyone, everything
	עבדי		עֶבֶד_1		Heb NOUN comm masc plur const	servant, slave
	ו				Heb SUFFIX 3 masc sing		suffix
	ה		ה		Heb PARTICLE art	the	prefix
	נביאים		נָבִיא		Heb NOUN comm masc plur	prophet
	ו		ו		Heb PARTICLE conj	and	prefix
	ל		ל		Heb PARTICLE prep	to	prefix
	אהוב		אהב		Heb VERB qal infinitiveConst	to love
	כול		כֹּל		Heb NOUN comm masc sing	all, whole, everyone, everything

Base word type	Morpheme	Morpheme (Recon- structed)	Morpheme	Morpheme (Recon- structed)	Both Morpheme and Morpheme (Reconstructed)	Both Morpheme and Morpheme (Reconstructed)
Base Word Total	41	6	37	6	46	43

The totals above are essentially the totals of the occupied cells in a column. The reason the numbers do NOT add up horizontally (when it appears they should) is because of missing data (see above where ו is used as suffix to get the idea of missing data)

IMPORTANT NOTE

The only words in the table above that are NOT tag words are the two types of morpheme words. These two lexicons of words are therefore the base words (each is given an index number during the processing of the files and all the tag words are associated with a base-word form).

The CHM file was converted to HTML by chm2web software.