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b-hebrew - Re: perfect vs imperfect

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  • From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: perfect vs imperfect
  • Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 17:20:00 -0700


> Dear Friends,
> Does anyone have of a concise statement of the difference in
> meaning/aspect between the Hebrew perfect and imperfect? And perhaps an
> example or two to illustrate the differences? Cheers.
> Mike D.
>
Nobody knows for sure. Ask a dozen grammarians and you'll likely
get a dozen different answers. A couple of good starting points are
my Hebrew Studies 1994 article "Chomsky's Separation of Syntax
and Semantics" and Galia Hatav's book "The Semantics of Aspect
and Modality" published by John Benjamins.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"No study of probabilities inside a given frame can ever
tell us how probable it is that the frame itself can be
violated." C. S. Lewis




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