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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: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 11:03:56 -0700


> Message text written by "Harold R. Holmyard III"
> >but they are aspects,
> in speaking of action as complete or incomplete. Thus both can be used of
> past time or future time.<
>
> but they are not 'pure' aspects, either. When talking about future events
> the prefix verb is not usually referring to the ASPECT of the event, to an
> "in-process, incomplete" event, rather it usually refers to an aspectually
> complete (=perfective) event in the future. Thus YAVO is usually a simple
> 'he will come' rather than 'he will be coming'.

[snip]

Agreed. That's why Hatav's work is so exciting. By moving the
main focus of the discussion out of the aspect realm and into the
area of modality, she has resolved a lot of the problems associated
with the aspect approach. Hence, the suffix conjugation is "realis"
mode and the prefix is "irrealis" which includes future.

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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