Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Tuesday 27 May 2003 11:50, Dr Dale M Wheeler wrote:
> Does anyone have a response to van der Merwe, et.al.'s contention that
> Hebrew is not a VSO language, but rather should be viewed as a SVO
> language?

I haven't seen van der Merwe's comments, but I agree that Hebrew is at its 
base SVO.  Virtually all of the comments I've seen in the grammars claiming 
that it is VSO are based on the wayyiqtol and weqatal, which (ISTM) are 
clearly derived constructions.  If we look at the non-derived constructions 
(qatal, yiqtol) the most common order there is SVO, and it is easy to see the 
VSO order of the waw-consecutive forms being derived by movement.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur