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b-hebrew - RE: Preterite and Imperfect

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  • From: Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Preterite and Imperfect
  • Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 10:36:39 -0400


>===== Original Message From tmcos AT canada.com =====
>Dear Friends,
>
> Could any of you provide some insights into an easy way to distinguish the
preterite in biblical Hebrew from the imperfect? Many thanks.

Well, there are a couple of different issues involved here. One is that the
preterite is not always distinguishable formally from the imperfect, so you
have to have some way of handling the identical forms. (I realize some would
contend that there is no real difference between these two conjugations, but
since your post assumed the distinction, I'm not going to address that
issue.)
The other issue is what formal markers can be observed. Let me handle that
one
first.

Obviously, the most prevalent formal marker (in voweled texts) is the a-class
vowel in the va-prefix and lengthened following consonant. This feature is
consistent regardless of root pattern, and it generally appears on preterite
forms. Some weak forms also exhibit differences. The preterite tends to be
shorter and to retract accent. If you glance through some verbal paradigms,
you can see where differences appear. It's good to spend some time
specifically learning the unique forms. Another difference seems to relate to
nunation, which belongs more properly to the imperfect. It can be observed
not
only as a visible nun but as consonantal lengthening in some pronominal
suffixes. (If you're at Toronto, you might want to see if you can talk to V.
DeCaen, who participates on this list and has been doing some work on
nunation.)

When formal features are of no help, you can look for positioning in the
sentence. In Classical BH prose, the imperfect does not generally appear at
the beginning of a clause. Of course, since most of the more ambiguous
occurrences are in poetry, that's probably not of much help. The verbal
behavior of poetry is a tough nut to crack. I haven't done that much with it
myself, so I can't provide too much help.

Well, that's a start anyway. Others probably know quite a bit more than I
about this.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics





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