Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

Dear Todd,

I think the answer here depends on what you mean by "imperfect". If 
that is simply a label for the verb form otherwise known as "suffix 
conjugation", you may be right, as long as you note the added waw and 
realise that there appear to be two different forms of the suffix 
conjugation, long and short, and this is the short one - the longer 
one would be YIHYEH.

But if you take the word "imperfect" to mean that this form has a 
meaning in any way comparable with imperfect (or even imperfective) 
verb forms in any other language, then you are going astray. For that 
reason the label "imperfect" is not appropriate here. "Preterit" is 
probably a better description of its meaning, but the whole matter is 
still being debated, including on this list.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Hebrew Parsing
Author:  <tbbyoung AT flash.net> at Internet
Date:    04/01/2000 18:06


I was having a discussion with a Hebrew professor the other day. The 
question revolved around the first word of Jeremiah 1:4. Can one 
legitimately parse it as an "imperfect third masculine singular" or must 
it be parsed as a waw consecutive Hebrew preterate?

Todd Young


---
You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
To unsubscribe, forward this message to 
leave-b-hebrew-14207U AT franklin.oit.unc.e
du
To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.