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b-hebrew - Re: Re[2]: More ?'s about verbs

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  • From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Re[2]: More ?'s about verbs
  • Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 07:05:51 -0700


Peter,
> I agree that this example is one of many difficult to interpret on a
> strictly sequential view of WAYYIQTOL, and so I no longer hold to that
> view. My point here was that it is simply wrong to think of each
> WAYYIQTOL as in some way a new beginning. Your suggested translation,
> while not wrong in point of fact, is at the level of a 3-year-old's
> picture book. No, Hebrew used other devices, not the ubiquitous (in
> narrative) WAYYIQTOL, to start new stories or new sections of stories,
> or to pick up after digressions.
>
> Of course I don't claim that this verse exhausts the possibilities for
> WAYYIQTOL. But can you show me cases where WAYYIQTOL alone signifies a
> major break? I doubt it, because it can and very often does (as here)
> signify no break at all, and so there would be no way to distinguish a
> major break from no break at all.

Do me a favor and show me where I used expressions like "new
beginning" and "major break"? I've explained before that this is not
what I mean by "syntactic break" and in fact I claim no such thing.
Major breaks and new beginnings, while often begun with
wayyiqtol, are signaled by context, not grammatical forms.


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




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