Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Peter,
> 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. 

My working hypothesis on this is that English is more complex 
than many other languages (notably Hebrew) because it's a melting-
pot language that has undergone influence from so many different 
languages and cultures especially over the last 2 or 3 centuries.  
Hence, linguistic systems based on English tend to be of limited 
usefulness for other languages, especially older ones like Hebrew.  
This is the major reason why I rejected Government-Binding theory 
and stuck with a modified version of Chomsky's earlier EST.  IMO 
GB and its successors are trying far too hard to explain all the 
idiosyncrasies of English and are based too heavily on it.


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