Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

One for Dave to duck, or to try to answer:

If weqatal is nothing but qatal which happens to have a conjunction, 
why are the instructions for building the tabernacle (for example) 
full of weqatal's and yiqtol's but no qatal's; where the corresponding 
account of the building is largely identical except that it has 
wayyiqtol's and qatal's but no yiqtol's?

If we look at the clause level, I am not sure how to account for this 
data apart from a "traditional" four component model with something 
like a "waw conversive". Then there is a separate issue of deciding 
how this strange system arose (but there are many very strange things 
in real human languages!)

If we are to move anywhere beyond such a traditional view, I am sure 
we need to look above the clause level. So my advice to Dave would be 
to brush up his discourse studies before taking his studies further.

Peter Kirk