Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Jonathan wrote:
> >*shudder* I hope I haven't actually said such a thing, and if I 
> >seemed to it certainly wasn't my intention and I apologize at once.  
> >I know that views of consecution have been developed after careful 
> >study; I just don't happen to agree with them :-)  To Jonathan, I 
> >should explain that my approach seeks unifying factors in 
> >grammatical usage, some sort of "thread" that ties apparently 
> >disparate uses of a form together.  There are innumerable 
> >examples of wayyiqtols that can't be consecutive, so I ask what 
> >the tie is that binds consecutive and non-consecutive uses 
> >together.  I also work from a strict separation of syntax and 
> >semantics a la Chomsky.  My view is a minority one, I am well 
> >aware.  But from some chatter I've read here and there as well as 
> >some private messages I've received now and again, a view other 
> >than consecutivity seems to be gaining some steam.  Perhaps in 
> >another hundred years or so...And again, if I have implicitly or 
> >explicitly suggested that somebody here does any "blind following" 
> >of a view, I apologize.  
> 
> I think the common thread that you are looking for is the fact that 
> children learn their 
> language by imitation, rather than reading grammar books, and therefore, 
> our rules 
> don't always apply. For instance, take the English phrase, "that's him". 
> According to 
> English grammar, the phrase should be "that's he" as "him" is an objective, 
> accusative or prepositional case. But somehwere during the course of the 
> language's 
> history, people got used to seeing he precede the verb and him follow it. 
> With Hebrew, 
> the vayyiqtol became the standard method of relating narrative past, and so 
> it 
> assumed this function (in some instances) even when unbound to a previous 
> past 
> indicating verb.

I'm afraid this is not a legitimate parallel, for the simple reason that 
"That's him" is still reasonably comprehensible.  This could hardly 
be the case with a sequential verb: "And then I saw that it was a 
penguin" coming out of the blue at the beginning of a discourse 
could hardly catch on as a reasonable alternative form of 
expression.  Either the verb form was marked for sequentiality or it 
wasn't and there are other reasons why it was used for narrative 
prose.    

> Now what I would be interested in finding is a vayyiqtol that is talking 
> about the 
> FUTURE, particularly without being bound to a previous future describing 
> verb. Can 
> you give me a list of unconsecutive vayyiqtols that are NOT describing 
> narrative past?

For that I'd suggest you check the archives.  Some topics along 
these lines have come up within the past few months.  

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.
                                   Psalm 86:11