Biblical Hebrew Forum

[decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca (Vincent DeCaen)]

dear karl,

re early 1800s and grammar:

i direct you in the first instance to my CV online at my site:
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~decaen/

the guy you need to watch is Ewald, not Gesenius. i first broached the 
issue in my 1995 diss. (unpublished).  i went into the issues at some 
depth in my ZAW 1996 article (9.2: 129-151).  i got into the nitty-gritty 
in a symosium presentation (2000), "The Invention of Hebrew Tenselessness, 
Berlin 1826". (some day soon i'd like to return to those studies, and 
work something up for a journal in the history of linguistic thought...)

essentially, sanskrit had launched indo-european studies, and any bright 
guy was heavily into the craze (such as Ewald). a key component was an 
evolutionary view, in which advanced systems developed out of primitive 
systems. west european languages were all "advanced", but non-european 
languages were "arrested". the explanation was the arrested mind of the 
"orientals", a pillar of "orientalism": it still is, sadly.

hebrew, of course, is not tenseless. i have argued that its aspect is not 
graeco-roman, which is the major source of differences; i have also argued 
that modal coordination is the other source of difference.

shalom,
V
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Dr Vincent DeCaen
Adjunct Professor
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
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Donner son consentement, c'est volontaire.