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  • From: "Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>
  • To: "Jonathan Robie" <jonathan AT texcel.no>, "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Cc: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: been to ulpan, bibliography on aspect
  • Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 17:33:19 -0400


Heh Jonathan,

Thanks for your continued questions!

You wrote:
----------
> From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan AT texcel.no>
> Are there any good articles or books that discuss Hebrew grammar in terms
> of aspect? My books don't.
>


Do you want the good news first or the bad news? Let's mix it all up.

Bad: I don't think there's a Fanning for BH, yet....

Good: Waltke and O'Connor _An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax_
Eisenbraun's, 1990 is a great source on the history of the study of the
verbal semantics in BH(as well as lots of other topics each supported by a
great number of proof texts, and a super bibliography). Bad: it's pricey.
How are you going to break it to your wife? Actually, it's a great value.

Good: I would also recommend for the verbal semantics of BH Leslie
McFall's _The Enigma of the Hebrew Verbal System_ 1982? a key source book
for W and O'C. In either W and O'C or McFall you will see all the 'heavies'
mentioned, the Jewish grammarians, Ewald, Driver, Michel, et al, so I won't
mention them here.

I am very partial to an article by Wm. Turner cited in McFall called "The
Tenses of the Hebrew Verb" in _Studies Biblical and Oriental_. btw,
written 1-8-76 !!! Yup that's 18, not 19.

Bad: I think the only way to get either McFall or Turner is via
inter-library loan. btw, if anyone wants to sell your McFall, I'm buying,
including the shipping! ;-)

Good: Also interesting is T. Givon, a true aspectnik, who refers to BH in
"Tense-Aspect-Modality: The Creole Prototype and Beyond" from
_Tense-Aspect: Between Semantics and Pragmatics_, ed. Hopper, 1982.

Decide for yourself: I recommend that a Hebraist reads Comrie, _Aspect_
and _Tense_ for
himself and draw his own conclusions about BH and aspect. Comrie is the
aspectnik on whom W and O'C rest to draw their final conclusions about BH
verbal semantics. But I think W and O'C are handicapped by their decision
to reject discourse analysis, discourse being a key consideration in
Comrie's theory. Interestingly, in Comrie's survey of world languages--I
forget what it's called(ask me and I'll dig up the title)--a Robert Hetzron
states blandly , "...the traditional label 'aspect' for these [two verb
forms, the prefixed and affixed] is unjustified and rests on indefensible
arguments" Who is Robert Hetzron? Seriously. I want to write him a
letter.

Good: ;-) I also hope to write about the verbal semantics of BH some day,
sort of a dream of mine.

As usual, I hope others will show me how much work I have ahead of me by
supplementing this list.

Shalom,
Bryan

B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13208

315-437-6744(w)
315-479-8267(h)




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