Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Galia Hatav <ghatav AT aall.ufl.edu>]

Cees van Veelen wrote:

>I try to understand the discussions on the list about the difference
>between WAYYIQTOL and QATAL and to see what effect diffent views have
>on the translation.
>Now I came to Gensis 1:5:
>And he called (WAYYIQTOL) God (subject) the light Day, and the darkness
>He called (QATAL) night. (I kept the word order, to show the chiastic
>structure).
>This structure is found again in verse 10.
>Now I don't see any difference in tense or aspect between WAYYIQTOL or
>QATAL in these examples.
>The two grammars I have (Jouon and Schneider) don't give a convincing
>answer. Jouon writes that hebrew liks to shift from WAYYIQTOL to QATAL
>just because the same verb is repeated, Schneider writes this
>construction is used to mark the end of a narrative part.
>How is this construction to be evaluated? The only thing I can imagine
>is that the chiastic word order and the shift from WAYYIQTOL to QATAL
>is to create (or emphasize) a contrast: God called the light Day, _but_
>the darkness He called Night.

        I explain <wayyiqtol> to build its own R(eference)-Time and <qatal>
to be parasitic on some other clause's R-time (or have an explicit R-time)
to anchor the situation reported by it.  According to that, the situation
depicted by the <qatal> clause is simultaneous to the one depicted by the
previous <wayyiqtol> one in the sense that it shares its R-time.

Galia
>
>
>Greetings,
>
>Cees van Veelen,
>Amsterdam The Netherlands
>
>
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