Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>]

Hi, thanks for the Thanksgiving blessing.  here's to yours, too, belated.
----------
> From: Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>
> To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Subject: 1 Samuel 1, bryan
> Date: Thursday, November 26, 1998 8:09 AM
> 
> what sources do you need for the phenomenon of "historical present"? I
> take it as given for speakers of english. or do you mean as a proposal
> for hebrew? why would anyone suggest it, given current assumptions? as
> far as I know, it would be a novel proposal for biblical hebrew, but
> who knows.

yeah, for translating BH.  Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure
McFall cites a small handful that propose the h. present.  I'll have to
look again.

> 
> funny you should mention hopper, that stuff proposes grammatical
> aspect tracking, like real aspect in a real aspect-language like
> russian, doesn't it? not at all what hebrew scholars are talking
> about, is it?

I'm just tryin' to get me an edication.  Hopper proposes that an inherently
perfective form can be used with imperfective sense in an imperfective
context to lend sequence to the activity, a.k.a. rules of
"compositionality"--just your line.  anyhow, Givon takes the
tense-aspect-modality discussion to BH, and I have on order  Hatav's _The
Semantics of Aspect and Modality: Evidence from English
and Biblical Hebrew_ (1997) thanks to our b-hebrew friend, Matthew Anstey. 
btw, Matthew, would you care to comment on 1 Sam 1 in light of Hatav or
otherwise?

> verses 1-3 inherently imperfective, background. not clear where to end
> the background, but extends at least to end of v.3 presumably wayhi
> hayyom as a pragmatic break, if nothing else.

pragmatic break of what sort?  back to default perfective?  that's my
guess.  for two clauses. 

> 
> verse 7 begins summary, generic/habitual.  signal?? $anah v$anah,
> nothing else: except it's in combination with ken, and then the
> repetition of ken. inherently imperfective.

And there's the directionality of ken to throw in.  it marks what's
*before* it as habitual.  so the wayyiqtol of v. 8 is outside the frame of
the habitual parenthetical, back on the story line.

> 
> v.8 almost ambiguous, except context might suggest a break. what
> *formal* break **could** you get?  (I've always wondered about the
> wayyiqtol idea as backbone, so many instances where wayyiqtol sequence
> continues while the story has made a clear break.) similarly, other
> wayyiqtols, how do *you know* you made a clear break?
> 
> independent of aspect, I would think the change of subject beginning
> v.8 is significant.

that's helpful.  Thanks.  in a way, it isn't independent of aspect , right?
 in that it marks a new beginning and therefore a return to default aspect.

here's my clause-by-clause take on vv. 1-10, leaving out dependent
clauses(how does it line up with the Anchor commentary you have in front of
you?):

__________________________________________
It's a Historical Narrative--wayyiqtol defaults for mainline
|   ________________________________
|   vv. 1-3 Embed Expository Discourse w/ verbless
|   |               clause mainline for scene-setting
|   |    ______________________________
|   |   v. 3a Embed Procedural w/ weqatal mainline
|   |   |         Discourse Switch cue: miyamim yamimah
|   |__|______________________________
|
|v. 4a-b two wayyiqtols "On a certain day he sacrificed"
|   _________________________________
|   vv. 4c(venatan)-7 Embed Procedural Discourse
|   |             Discourse Switch Cue: $anah b:$anah
|   |       The X-qatals are expository-type elaboration
|   |        embedded into or "off-the-line" in the Procedural
|   |        Discourse.
|   |_________________________________
|
|v. 8a wayyiqtol back on the mainline of the Hist. Nar.
| 
|v. 10c. ubakoh tibkeh writer breaks narrative frame for 
|                 discursive stance comment about weeping.
|                 very rhetorically saavy  ;-)
|etc. etc.

Shalom.  i'm off to the in-laws'.

Bryan


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

315-437-6744(w)
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