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b-hebrew - Re: BH TMA, Bryan, II

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  • From: "Andy Warren" <andy_warren AT sil.org>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: BH TMA, Bryan, II
  • Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 16:47:00 -0000


Bryan, may I pick up a point from your correspondence with Vince?

>My first reservation would be in thinking of HYH as a be-verb. I don't
>think it is. I think it means "become,happen" so that hayu kotevim means
>they had become writers. ...

> I think HYH is closer to Gr ginomai than eimi.

> On the one hand, vayehi hebel ro`eh tso'n has little to do with
> whether Abel is actually doing shepherding during the story time. It is
> only saying that he came into that occupation.

What do you do with qatal and wayyiqtol forms of HYH such as:

Gen 1:2 'the earth HAD BECOME a formless void'?
Gen 2:25 'they both HAD BECOME naked'?
Exod 24:18 'Moses took forty days and nights to get onto the mountain'?

Forgive the absurd examples, but wouldn't it really be better to see HYH as
a stative verb which becomes ingressive in a punctual context?

All the best

Andy Warren





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