The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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(7) Verbs of (dis)belief: he’emin be- (‘believe in’), batax be- (‘trusted’), samax al
(‘relied on’), nitla be- (‘depended on’), xašad be- (‘suspected’), pikpek be-
(‘doubted’/’questioned’), ‘kine be-/le-’ (‘envied’, was ‘jealous of’).
(8) Verbs of looking: hibit/histakel be- (‘looked/glanced at’), hivxin be- (‘noticed’),
hitbonen be- (‘inspected’, ‘observed’), cafa be- (‘watched’), baha be- (‘glared at’).
(9) Verbs of physical contact: xavat be- (‘hit’), ba’at be- (‘kicked’), naga be-
(‘touched’), halam/hika be- (‘beat’).
(10) Verbs of abstract contact: tamax be- (‘supported’), nazaf be- (‘scolded’), hifcir
be- (‘pleaded with’), tipel be- (‘dealt with’), he’ic be- (‘urged’), xibel be-
(‘sabotaged’), alav be- (‘hurt’), paga be- (‘hit’, ‘hurt’, ‘damaged’), bagad be-
(‘betrayed’), šita be- ([made] ‘fool of’), hišpi’a al (‘influenced’), iyem al
(‘threatened’), pakad al (‘ordered’), asar al (‘forbid’).
(11) Geographic relation verbs: gaval be- ([had] ‘border with’), xalaš/šalat al (was
located above), hiškif al (‘overlooked’, in its geographical sense).
(12) De-animal verbs: zinev be- (literally: cut the ‘tail’, meaning: made less, cut the
edge), ximer be- (speed up an animal).
There is a significant group of PP-verbs in the hitpa’el verbal template
(exemplified in (13)). The relevant characteristic of this template (on a par with
templates such as nif’al and the pure passive pu’al and huf’al) is its inability to assign
or check Accusative. Thus, for the hitpa’el group of PP-verbs, it would be reasonable
to claim that the function of P is to assign or check Case. This fact, by itself, does not
have any far-reaching implications for the phenomenon of PP-verbs, since the fact
remains that the vast majority of PP-verbs in Hebrew are not in hitpa’el (or in any
non-Accusative template, for that matter). Despite the fact that my main effort will
not be directed towards this group, its existence will turn out to be helpful in
clarifying certain issues.