Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Dear Peter,

It seems my post has given you a misleading impression. The main subtext of
what I wrote is that I'm an inveterate teacher with yet another
non-standard view on some matter. I have also indicated that before modern
linguistics scholars had tried to fit the English verb system into a system
that was not adapted to it. (We are still suffering the consequences of
that mishap, though linguists have attempted to pick up the pieces.)

I would add to my previous ravings that I don't think an analysis that
doesn't include some intrinsic sense for the various verb forms in a
language, be they seen in some grammatical terminology or more in the
direction of semantic analysis, will be very helpful in the grasping the
significance of the verb system. While the verb forms may be seen in
operation in the discourse of a language, a functional approach will not
get much beyond, "you use form x in the following situations achieve these
results."

I'm not at all pessimistic in the endeavour at hand. It's not a matter of
the numbers involved, but whether heuristically useful questions are asked,
ones that have the chance of taking the askers closer to the significance
of the verb system.

What I am pessimistic about is the grammatical future of the vast numbers
of English native speakers whose first views of linguistic analysis come
after they've arrived at university, their notions of language have been
hardwired into their brains after nearly two decades of ad hoc language
learning, whose knowledge of such things as past conditional structures can
be analysed in quotes such as, "I would of if I could of". The Finnish kid
at the arrival of abstract thought gets hit with fifteen functional cases
and a couple of different infinitives. The gymnasiums and lycees of Europe
are filled with students torturing their own and numerous other languages,
having to know what subjunctives and hortatives are, while the average
Anglo-Saxon gets lumbered with "doing words" and "describing words". I'd
guess both you and Paul Zellmer are in linguistically advantaged
situations, spending long periods of time in starkly diverse linguistic
communities.


Cheers,


Ian