Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Paul Zellmer wrote:

>Because the description is imbedded in historical narrative, it starts off
>each
>section with historical narrative-type features.  The difference between
>this genre
>and the other non-historical narrative genres is that this genre is *not*
>dialogue or
>quotation.  Therefore it does not use a distinct historical narrative
>marker, like the
>wayyiqtol of )MR.  Rather, it uses a distinctly historical narrative form
>in the first
>clause of each section  After that, it returns to the form that is
>characteristic of
>its genre, in this case, a weqatal and its companion, X-yiqtol.  (Rolf,
>please note
>something that you have not acknowledged in the past.  For some reason, BH
>seems to
>make a distinction between the forms of verbs found clause initially and
>those found
>postpositively in clauses.  I have noted in many of your posts that you
>select yiqtols
>or qatals and question about their "time" without indicating that you
>recognize that
>they are clausally postpositive.)


Dear Paul,

Thank you for answering my Joshua question. Before I give my comments I
would like to hear your view of two questions.

(1) (Extremely important). Can "genre" change the semantic meaning of a
verb form? Wayyiqtol is either past tense, the perfective aspect, the
imperfective aspect, or a blend of past tense and the perfective aspect.
The meaning you ascribe to wayyiqtol (and yiqtol, qatal and weqatal) is it
different in one genre compared with another?

(2) I have earlier expressed on this list that a sentence initial position
of a yiqtol suggests modality (jussive) while a medial position may either
be indicative or jussive. A sentence initial position of a qatal may often
indicate direct speech. Is there anything more you can teach me about word
order? (Does "postpositive" mean "non-initial"?)


Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo