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  • From: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] A Jewish perspective on reading biblical hebrew
  • Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 06:51:48 +0100

Dear Uri,

If you are teaching students, I suggest the following test: Take a narrative text of a page or so, and change all the finite and infinite verbs into bare roots, to the point where there is no difference between YIQTOL, WAYYIQTOL etc. Then, let your students translate the text ( they should be able to use a lexicon in order to understand the lexical meaning of each root).

I would guess that those who have a relatively good grasp of Hebrew would be able to translate the text rather easily, including the temporal reference of each clause. If that turns out to be true, it would show that the form of the verb (the conjugations) are less important for grasping the broad meaning of a text, but they are important for understanding the subtleties of the text.

I would suppose that the test would work quite well with modern Hebrew as well.

Best regards

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo

Uri Hurwitz wrote:

Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net> wrote:
"..... But as you may have gathered from this board, the perfect/imperfect thing doesn't exactly work, either. We're fairly sure that BH isn't tensed, but it doesn't really seem to be aspectual, either. That's why many of us are engaged in ongoing research, trying to figure out exactly what it is (at the moment, we can only tell you what it isn't). "

-- Now the mystery really deepens: if the above is correct, how could this
language have been in use for thousands of years, been translated to
practically every written language; how could commentators delude themselves
they understaood it -- since the the days of the Dead Sea Scrolls at least,
if its very basic verbal system defies comprehension?

Perhaps it is simply the difference between the use of a language on the
one hand, and the grammatical tools that are employed to analyze it, tools
that by their nature are constructs and abstractions?

Uri











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