Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>]

I'm confused. I can find no reference to Gross in my electronic copy of this
grammar, except in the acknowledgement and the references. Is my copy
incomplete? Is it missing footnotes in which Gross is referred to? The text
as I have it certainly doesn't opt for SVO; it implies VSO, without actually
stating this, by treating as marked and classifying all variations from VSO.

I agree with the rest of what you say, as far as I am competent to do so.
There is a very good reason why explicit personal pronoun subjects most
commonly precede the verb. Such subjects are usually omitted, and the main
reason why they are sometimes made explicit is because the person is in
focus. So of course the explicit pronoun is put in the focus position, which
is pre-verbal.

Peter Kirk
peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew-
> bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dr Dale M Wheeler
> Sent: 28 May 2003 19:21
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] VSO vs SVO
> 
> First of all, thanks Peter for the info.
> 
> Secondly, yes I was referring to Van der Merwe's Grammar.  They base their
> decision to opt for SVO on the work of Walter Gross (inter alia: Die
> Satzteilfolge im althebräischen Verbalsatz: Untersucht an den Bücher Dtn.
> Ri und 2Kön, 1996).
> 
> Thirdly, to the heart of the matter...
> 
<snip>
> 
> The Unprefixed Perfect and Imperfect occur @7000x.
>     @25x the Personal Pronoun Subject immediately follows the unprefixed
> Perfect or Imperfect verb.
>     @890x the Personal Pronoun Subject immediately precedes the unprefixed
> Perfect or Imperfect verb.
> 
> The Waw Prefixed Perfect, Imperfect, and Consecutive forms occur @12,100x.
>     @60x the Personal Pronoun Subject of the verb immediately follows it.
>      Since there is no "slot" room between the Waw and the Verb, the
> Personal Pronoun Subject never precedes the verb.
> 
> 5.a. But, the situation is a bit different when a Noun subject is
involved:
> 
<snip>