Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>]

> The puzzle here is that 24% of -qtl forms are non-past. I don't think 
> that happens in BH - although it might do if statives are 
> included. But 
> then are the DSS -qtl forms consistently distinguished from 
> infinitives, 
> participles and verbal adjectives?

Peter,

In interpreting the drop in wayyiqtol frequency, we must consider genre
effects.

Qumran infinitives almost always have a prefixed preposition. Participles
tend to be spelled with matres, but of course not all are.
I suppose some verbal adjectives would also not use matres lectionis, and
would therefore be indistinguishable from qatal. These are possibilities
I'll need to discuss.

As for -qtl for non-past, here are the stats excluding verbs with stative
lexical aspect:

Conj.   Past    Present Future  Total
-yqtl   3%      9%      88%     100%
wyqtl   61%     5%      34%     100%
-qtl    85%     3%      12%     100%
wqtl    2%      0%      98%     100%
A. Ptc. 7%      14%     80%     100%
P. Ptc. 54%     6%      40%     100%
Total   30%     6%      64%     100%

Compare with the numbers including stative verbs:

>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%