[b-hebrew] b-hebrew Uncancellable meaning and Hebrew verbs

Rolf Furuli furuli at online.no
Sat Jun 27 17:11:50 EDT 2009


Dear  Stephen,


>Hi Rolf,
>
>Thank you for outlining your linguistic approach to the analysis of 
>WAYYIQTOL. I have a question: Does your approach assume that if 
>WAYYIQTOL is ever a past tense, then it must always be a past tense?

No, i do not believe that WAYYIQTOL is ever past tense (past 
grammaticalization of locations in time)..


>
>The reason I ask is because of something you asserted about the 
>English form "went" (on 23/6 - yes, I'm a way behind):
>
><snip>
>The form "went" has an intrinsic past reference that is not caused 
>by the context. There may be exceptions, but again, they can be 
>explained as exceptions.
>...
>3) Liz went home.
></snip>
>
>This is not correct. In some contexts the form "went" is modal, for example:
>
>1) If you went to Australia, you would find some of their English 
>dialects very difficult to understand.
>
>In this type of construction, the temporal reference that the "went" 
>form definitely cannot have is past; if it has temporal reference, 
>it is probably future. However, nobody would deny, on the basis of 
>this, that "went" is past tense in your example, Liz went home.
>
>Two conclusions: (1) the presence or absence of tense is not 
>inextricably tied to a verb form, and (2) the "semantic value" of a 
>verb form must take into account wider contextual considerations (or 
>better, wider constructional considerations).


I do not follow your reasoning, particularly because you have to 
define the deictic center.

>
>Does this fit with your methodology? The reason it seems important 
>is that the "went" form in English would similarly have past 
>reference the vast majority of the time, but with present and/or 
>future exceptions. (I apologise that I cannot check myself whether 
>this has any relevance to your dissertation, but I do not have 
>access to it presently.)

Sorry, but I do not understand how this has any bearing on Hebrew.

>
>Regards,
>Stephen Shead
>Centro de Estudios Pastorales
>Santiago, Chile


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo



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