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  • From: "Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>
  • To: "'Yitzhak Sapir'" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] Use and Misuse of Waw in Verb Tenses
  • Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 11:28:33 -0400

Hi Yitzhak,

In answer your original question,

> Or, if not that, a "concordance" of grammatical structures whereby one
> could look up how common is the use of waw to denote past tense verbs
> and how often it is used for future tense verbs. This could give some
> hint as to how uncommon the above verb is in Kings as opposed to
> Esther. Any help would be welcome :-)

My dissertation focusses on the verbs in Hebrew from a period immediately
after the biblical texts: Qumran Hebrew. The following data may help answer
your question by showing the trajectory of Late Biblical Hebrew (ignoring
possible archaizing tendencies of the Qumran authors).

Of the verbs I have examined so far, the relationship between Speech Time
and Event Time (i.e., Absolute Tense: Past) in the verbs for which the
context offers reasonable certainty is:

Conj. Past Present Future Total
-yqtl 21 77 702 800
wyqtl 115 32 67 214
-qtl 333 50 56 439
wqtl 2 2 160 164
A. Part. 4 9 44 57
P. Part. 27 4 30 61
Total 522 293 1227 2042

As a percentage of each tense, that works out to:

Conj. Past Present Future Total
-yqtl 4% 26% 57% 39%
wyqtl 22% 11% 5% 10%
-qtl 64% 17% 5% 21%
wqtl 0% 1% 13% 8%
A. Part. 1% 3% 4% 3%
P. Part. 5% 1% 2% 3%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100%

As a percentage of each form, that works out to:

Conj. Past Present Future Total
-yqtl 3% 10% 88% 100%
wyqtl 54% 15% 31% 100%
-qtl 76% 11% 13% 100%
wqtl 1% 1% 98% 100%
A. Part. 7% 16% 77% 100%
P. Part. 44% 7% 49% 100%
Total 26% 14% 60% 100%

To interpret these tables, what you call "future verbs" with waw (i.e.,
wyqtl) refer to the past in 54% of cases and to the future in 31% of cases
in these Dead Sea scrolls. What you call "past verbs" with waw (i.e. wqtl)
refer to the past in 1% of cases, and to the future in 98% of cases.

Ken Penner, McMaster/DSS
Dead Sea Scrolls scholars' list owner,
http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot





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