Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>]

I've caught you discourse types in 1 Samuel. the analysis is
descriptively inadequate. centres around notion of "backbone" and the
function of wayyiqtol/wqatal. (reading McCarter in Anchor commentaries)

look at all non-sequential forms: *they* tell you the form to be used as
"backbone" which governs the entire passage. what forms do you get?
yiqtol and verbless/participles (same thing in my book). conclusion:
narrating in historical present tense.  ;-)

therefore, all sequential forms must be so interpreted! therefore even
first wayhi read as yiqtol. ;-)

hypothesis: wayyiqtol vs wqatal a difference in realis/irrealis, not
necessarily governs structure of passage. ;-)

descriptive benefits?
(1) v7 not odd in any way: ken taxisennah, wattivkeh, wlo toxal.
comment: wayyiqtol on yiqtol? why not????
(2) v10 not adverbial necessarily: whi marat-nefe$, wattitpallel...
comment: wayyiqtol on verbless? sure!
(3) overall: don't necessarily have huge (!) parenthetical structures;
several ways to skin this cat. freedom to explore semantics/pragmatics.
(4) break the strangle-hold of wayyiqtol hypothesis ;-)

cheers
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Vincent DeCaen, Ph.D.  <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~decaen/hsei/intro.html
c/o Deparment of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor, University of Toronto, Toronto ON, M5S 1A1
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