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  • From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: The form of weqatal
  • Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 09:10:34 -0700


Rolf,
You've given me plenty to chew on here, and it will likely take all
day to examine your examples. Just a couple of comments:

[snip]
> However, to ascribe a semantic (uncancellable) property "modality" to
> WEQATAL is highly problematic. At least two points must be cleared up
> before one can do that:
>
> (1) One has to demonstrate that there is a difference between WEQATAL and
> WE+QATAL used with past meaning. This has never been done and is an
> interesting challenge. In my view there is no difference.

I'd like to hear Galia's take on this. Waltke-O'Connor, following
Moran, suggest that weqatal originated as an apodosis
construction and say flatly that this idea "shines through almost all
of its uses in Biblical Hebrew" (p.525). They cover what they call
"copulative WAW + Suffix Conjugation" beginning on p.540 and
there do seem to be differences, so I find your statement that "this
has never been done" curious.

> (2) One has to find clear criteria which can differentiate between future
> meaning and modality. This is difficult, and it seems that a modal analysis
> of WEQATAL is somewhat selfserving, because most verbs with future meaning
> can also, if this is our belief, be interpreted as modals.

On the subject of future as modal, I refer you to Galia's book
chapter 4. It seems to me that she (and those she cites) has
made her case for this idea. If, as seems to be the case, "future
meaning" is a subset of "modality" then we don't need these
differentiating criteria. The evidence she presents is largely from
English before diving into Hebrew. Note especially p. 120-121.

[snip - gotta go spend some time in the passages cited]

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




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