Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT hotkey.net.au>]

Hi Noam!

Aspect is basically about the speaker's perspective (ie, aspect) of the 
action. It takes in more information that just tense (timing). One way to put 
it is how the action is positioned in relation to the speaker. It allows you 
to answer the following questions:

- When did the action occur?
- Does the speaker convey a detailed or non-detailed view of the action?
- Does the speaker consider the action to be a background action or a 
foreground action?

You might like to think of aspect as providing you with a 'camera angle' on 
the actions, not just a chronology of them.

I hope that makes some sense.

Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Lecturer in Biblical Languages
Southern Cross College
Sydney, Australia


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Noam Eitan 
  To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org 
  Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 11:50 AM
  Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] WAV Conjunction


  Dear George,
   
  Thanks for this summary. I have despaired of making sense of BH verbal 
system. There are places that tolerate the concept of past and future tenses, 
particularly narratives; in others, mostly in the prophets, when I try to 
play with switching verbs form past to future or infinitive and step back to 
get the feel of it, it looks like "anything goes", as long as you don't use 
the same conjugation repetitively (which would indicate emphasis.) The 
perfect/imperfect concept doesn't help me at all and I feel is foreign to BH. 
Can someone summarize for me the concept of "aspects" or refer me to an 
online source? I don't understand this concept - maybe that's where the money 
is -  Noam Eitan, Brooklyn, NY

  George Athas <gathas AT hotkey.net.au> wrote:
  Hi Chris!

  As you've picked up, the WAW CONSECUTIVE is a very prickly subject in 
Biblical Hebrew. The problems do not all come down to the WAW CONSECUTIVE, 
though -- there are other peripheral issues involved.

  Essentially, let me outline the old school of thought, and then outline 
some new currents.




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