Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

Has veshalom, i have another situation to pose. 

why pose situations for trying out BH?
it's like having a recipe but not knowing if a cake will come out of it. or
HOW IT WILL TASTE.
or a flying machine and not knowing if it flies.

so here comes another situation: [excuse the wording, it is from the notes
in the first unit of ulpan le`ivrit miqrait--rb. it APPLIES general
descriptions that may have already left a student wondering...]:

"A parable for students

     The simplicity of the two-tense Hebrew verb system often confuses
beginning students who already know a language with more complex
categories. It is important to see how the Hebrew system was able to "work"
in practical contexts.
        Imagine the following situation and responses:
You walk up to someone in the days of Biblical Hebrew and after greetings,
ask what is going on in their life.

A. If they say,
     ani baniti bayit biyrushalayim       "I  [. . .]  a house in
Jerusalem"
The suffix tense refers to something in the past, that has already
happened. [It does not refer to an "aspect" or "mood" in the future.] In
English the person might have said "I built a house in Jerusalem." Or, "I
have built a house in Jerusalem." The suffix tense defines the time
reference here. (Cf. 1 Kings 8.13, 2 Chr. 6.2)

B.  If they say, 
     ani bone bayit biyrushalayim.   
The participle refers to something on-going in the present or something
about to happen. In English the person would have said, "I am building a
house in Jerusalem" or perhaps "I am about to build a house in Jerusalem."
The participle defines the time reference here. (Cf. 1 Kings 6.11, 10-14.)

C. If they say,
     ani evne bayit biyrushalayim   
The prefix tense refers to the future, to something that has not yet
happened. In English the person could have used the future "I will build a
house in Jerusalem". The prefix tense defines the futurity. (Cf. 2 Sam
7.27.) 
     Also, in more colloquial English, personalized accounts tend to use
the "near future": 
"I am going to build...". Such a specific construction did not exist in
Hebrew, though if someone wanted to make a point of it then they would use
the participle in "B" above. 

[[  The above examples were purposely set in an undefined, open, common
situation.
Special situations allow additional, special nuances to be used. For
example, "A" might be spoken by a prophet to describe a vision in the
future. Or, "C" could be used proverbially or in poetry to refer to
something that they have been doing habitually in the present. But those
are specific contextual clues, beyond "default" values.]] 

       The student should rest assured that the language was able to work
for day-to-day communication. 
=======
anyway, have you thought about what the above responses would mean in A,B,C
? Can you see how "aspects" [better: fuzzy 'tense-aspects'] end up DEFINING
TIME in conversations? 

blessings
randall

ps:  does it fly?  hey, if its made out of metal it couldn't fly, right?