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b-hebrew - semantics of wayyiqtol/weqatal

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  • From: decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca (Vincent DeCaen)
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: semantics of wayyiqtol/weqatal
  • Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 18:01:31 -0400 (EDT)


anyone out there into formal semantics? i've been trying to model the
consecutives in BH by playing with the propositional calculus. i believe
that the following must be the key:

"sequence": A, followed by B

FORM SEMANTICS?
english: A and B A & B
hebrew: A wayyiqtol B A <--> B

similarly weqatal as A --> B

what's interesting about this approach is the difference between english
and hebrew amounts to a morpheme virtually equivalent semantically to
"then". that seems to be the intuition consistent with the traditional
term "consecutive".

i believe, then, that this opens up a coherent model, incorporating
truth-functional operators (crucially, "and", "then"), mood, tense. i've
put together some notes if anyone wants to follow this up at

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~decaen/papers/truth_operators.doc

this is an MSWord.doc, if you have trouble with it, please let me know.

sholom,
V
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Dr Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>
c/o Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, 4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor
University of Toronto, Toronto ON, CANADA, M5S 1A1

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative, www.chass.utoronto.ca/~decaen/hsei/
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Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. --Dewey



  • semantics of wayyiqtol/weqatal, Vincent DeCaen, 10/16/2001

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