Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

Thanks, Ian. I wondered what you would have to say on this discussion, 
and I think you have come up with a good one, as follows: If all the 
linguists who are studying the English language, with the help of 
100's of millions of native speakers, can't come up with a proper 
analysis of the English tense/aspect/modality system, what chance is 
there for a few analysts of Hebrew with no native speakers? OK, the 
English system is very complex, but then so (in different ways) is the 
Hebrew one, apparently. Counsel of despair? I hope not. But it should 
warn us not to expect simple answers. On the other hand, plenty of 
people (and not just the native speakers) seem to be able to 
understand English well, so maybe we should quit the analysis and try 
to read the texts for what makes sense in the context.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
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Subject: Re: <wayyiqtol> & attempts at English descriptive grammars
Author:  <mc2499 AT mclink.it> at Internet
Date:    02/01/2000 23:02


This is an irrelevant comment on a side issue of the wayyiqtol discussion.

I find there are problems with these descriptive grammarians' views of 
English. For example, in the sentence:

<snip>