Biblical Hebrew Forum

[CS Bartholomew <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>]

On 9/5/03 11:29 AM, "Trevor Peterson" <06PETERSON AT cua.edu> wrote:

> Are they trying to say this?

Probably not.

>Wouldn't that mean that the yiqtol is always
> iterative? I doubt that this is their point.

I also doubt it. 

>Semantic categories like the
> lists found in W&O'C are intended to show the range covered by a given
> syntactic element. The point is that this is a contextual meaning. In this
> particularly obvious context, the action is iterative (as explicitly marked,
> which you point out). The next question is, what about other places where
> yiqtol appears in a past narrative? The generalization is that it can also
> refer to iterative action without adverbial marking.

But saying that they can refer to iterative action isn't, by itself, grounds
for making exegetical or translation decisions. Cats can be black but I
cannot infer from that any generalization about the color of a cat.

>(In English, we can say,
> "He used to walk to work every day," or, "He used to walk to work." In both
> cases, the action is the same.)

Both of these explicitly encode iterativity. "He walked to work" does not
say anything about repetition but "He used to walk to work" is explicitly
iterative.     

> What the yiqtol means in and of itself, apart
> from contextual factors, is a separate question.

True.

Thanks, Clay