Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

mah nishmah, Randall,

You wrote:
>hope you enjoyed entering into the fun of the later examples.

behexlet!  


>so when and where are prefix verbs ["imperfective"? a semantic term--rb]
>used for the something happening in an actualized "present"? 
>are prefix verbs as compatible as BH grammar writers seem to assume? 
>would they have been "forms of choice" for any of the hypothetical
>examples?

depends on the context.  

if the question is "what do you do?"
'elmad `ivrit

"what are you doing?"
'ani lomed `ivrit

and if you can imagine the question, "what does your action say you are?"
lamadti `ivrit

>{bryan wrote:}
>>>"I am speaking to you right now."
        a. adabber elexa `ata 
        b. ani medabber elexa `ata
        c. dibbarti elexa `ata
        d. ani dover elexa `ata
        e. ??

>>none are BH.   i don't think `atah is *really* a BH temporal adverb so
>>much
>>as it is a pragmatic marker of culmination, either of a series of events
>>or
>>of an arguement or exhortation.{end quote}

>emet? (and you may always write an 'e', too.)   while it is true that
`atta
>is regularly an epistolary and rhetorical marker of reaching a significant
>point of communication, it has a plain sense as well:
>jud 11.7:  madua` ba'tem elay `ata? 
>(or with participle) hag 2.3:  me atem ro'im oto `ata? [=how(as what) are
>you seeing it now?"

e.  (like that?)  the "argement which precedes the `atah may be understood.
 the sense would be in Hag 2:3 "as what are you seeing it now, i.e. with
all this input."

>so what would a student say to a biblical hebrew teacher, after eating
some
>disagreable food on a nauseous stomach? 
>would they run out of class with their mouth shut? --perhaps not bad
advice
>for someone in that predicament.
>for the loquacious, i might recommend:  hineni meqi ...

how about, "oy!"

seriously, hineni meqi sounds grammatically appropriate.  also 'ani meqi.

lehitraot,
Bryan


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

315-437-6744(w)
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