Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> I personally think that the Hebrew language DOES HAVE verbs. But I also
> think that we can sometimes learn by following up on a bizarre
> hypothesis.
> 
> Let's say that there are no verbs in Hebrew. How do we then explain the
> text?
> 
> We know that present tense sentences sometimes omit the verb "to be" when
> it is used as a simple subject/predicate copula between two nouns or
> between a noun and a pronoun.
> 
> Ex.: HOO TALMID
> he [is] a student
> 
> Now, if we take more complex sentences with other verbs, we can construe
> them as such "noun" sentences, with the alleged "verb" being an adjective
> substantialized into a noun.
> 
> Ex.: HOO HALAK
> with verb: he walks
> without verb: he [is] the presently walking one.
> 
> Such "nouns" would be tensed, which is quite odd, but not without
> precedent in other languages (cf. Japanese "tensed" adjectives) (and cf.
> German: "der Ausgebildete" vs. "der Auszubildende").
> 
> The German example above really illustrates the point well. If German had
> the luxury of omitting the verb "to be" in the present time/tense, as
> Hebrew does, then German could function almost entirely without verbs,
> given these "tensed" participle/adjectives substantivized into nouns.

Tensed, perhaps, but they don't appear to be inflected.  Hebrew 
"verbs" are inflected for person, number, and whatever the tenses 
indicate. To me, this settles the question.

> As I said, I personally don't believe that Hebrew is "verbless", but the
> above argumentation illustrates how someone might arrive at the
> conclusion that it is verbless.

It would seem to require several unnecessary and unwarranted and 
unsupported linguistic back-flips, though.  After I calmed down, I 
wrote a carefully-worded letter to the person who made this 
comment, explaining how the verb system works and where I 
suspect the person got this idea (the person is a pastor and 
apparently only took baby Hebrew, and that many years ago).  
We'll see.  

However, one thing I do appreciate about Andrew is his willingness 
to give any theory, not matter how cockamamey it may sound, a 
fair hearing.  That's what I was trying to do, as well.

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