Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re[2]: Qatal, 1 Kings 11:1

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG
  • To: dwashbur AT nyx.net, b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re[2]: Qatal, 1 Kings 11:1
  • Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 20:29:14 -0500 (EST)



Part of the point of my posting is to suggest that the verb )HB has
two sides, a fientive side "fall in love" and a stative side "be in
love", just like (MD can be fientive "stand up, take one's stand" or
stative "stand". Many verbs can be divided in this way. I suppose the
division has something to do with aspect, but it is not the same as
aspect. (My knowledge of Russian illustrates this: take an
imperfective stative or semi-stative verb, add the prefix za-, and you
get a perfective fientive verb meaning to enter a state or begin to be
whatever). Then Bryan's suggestion would be that the qatal tends to
correspond to the stative side; perhaps yiqtol and wayyiqtol are both
more fientive, and the participle is more a repeated or habitual
fientive. I am only putting out feelers here, not setting forward any
fixed position, but maybe it sheds some light on a way ahead in this
discussion.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: Qatal, 1 Kings 11:1
Author: dwashbur AT nyx.net at internet
Date: 23/01/1999 17:17


Peter wrote:
> If we follow the regular understanding of N + qatal in 1 Kings 11:1,
> the point is not that Solomon "had a thing for" foreign women or
> "habitually fell in love with them". I guess that would require a
> participle. Here, rather, the sense is pluperfect: at some time
> previous to the events described in the previous passage, Solomon "had
> fallen in love with" many foreign women and so was, at the narrative
> time, in a state of love regarding them - cf an English or Greek
> perfect or pluperfect tense. Indeed, they had become his wives and
> concubines. I understand Bryan's conception of the qatal as stative as
> relating in that way to its pluperfect "flashback" sense - is that
> right, Bryan? Maybe the older grammarians were not as wrong as we
> sometimes think in calling the qatal form "perfect".

My purpose in offering that text was to set a couple of clauses in
the context of Bryan's fientive/stative context. If I understand his
approach correctly, the stative idea that Solomon had an eye for
numerous foreign women would be the essential force of the qatal
in that verse. I wouldn't use the expression "fall in love" at all in
that clause, though "was in love" might be workable.


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
A Bible that's falling apart means a life that isn't.

---
You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
To unsubscribe, forward this message to
$subst('Email.Unsub')
To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page