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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Aspect

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  • From: "Eduard C Hanganu" <eddhanganu AT hotmail.com>
  • To: bhebrew AT yahoo.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Aspect
  • Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 07:58:54 -0500


Dear Ethan:

Honestly, I took the opportunity offered to me by the topic to refer to a difficulty I have been having with the aspect of the verb. The meaning of the verb is important, of course, but though NITZDAK is a hapax, the semantic unit that constitutes the discourse fragment from Daniel 8:9-14 offers enough information for its meaning, which must be in the area of 'restoration' of the 'holy' from the trampling of the little horn.

My interest, though, was less in the meaning of the verb as in its aspect. Is the verb describing a progressive action, a short, telic event, an open event ( with a beginning and no defined end )? I thought that an analysis of the morphology of the verb would indicate the aspect of its described action in spite of the fact that the meaning of the verb might seem imprecise.

We must also consider the fact that while the 'sense' of a word is not dependent on the context, its 'meaning' is context dependent, and that the context generally disambiguates meaning even to the degree that a word whose sense is totally unknown may acquire meaning through the limits imposed on its possible range of meanings by the context. So, in this analysis the meaning of the verb under discussion may not be so important if the focus is the morphological analysis of the word.

To repeat myself, what does the morphology of the verb NITZDAK indicate about its aspect:
is the verb describing a progressive action or process, a short, telic event, an open event ( with a beginning and no defined end ), a punctiliar action, etc.?

What is your perspective in this matter?

Regards,

Eduard

From: Noam Eitan <bhebrew AT yahoo.com>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Aspect
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 11:13:11 -0700 (PDT)


>One of the verbs that have preocupied me in this sense is the NITZDAK of
>Daniel 8:14 ( the niphal waw consec perfect 3rd person masculine singular of
>the verb TZADEIK).



I don't think this NITZDAK is a good launching pad for a discussion about aspect, because the meaning of both is controversial. We need examples where the meaning can be clearly gleaned at least from the context to discuss such a topic. - Noam Eitan, Brooklyn, NY




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