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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] VERBS. Was " masorete pointing v's LLXtransliterations"

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] VERBS. Was " masorete pointing v's LLXtransliterations"
  • Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 23:50:18 +0100

On 26/07/2005 23:17, Rolf Furuli wrote:

...

I will argue that the perfective aspect in English is expressed by perfect
(and not by simple past, which is a tense). When I say, "Elsie has walked in
the garden," what I make visible is the the end of the action. We know that
the action had a beginning, and we know that it progressed over some time, but
only the end is made visible. This is the perfective aspect.


As a mother tongue speaker of English, I consider that this is a misunderstanding of the English present perfect (which may be subtly different from its Norwegian counterpart here). I would say "Elsie has walked in the garden" normally if I have found some evidence for her presence there, such as something she has dropped. But that does not imply that she has stopped walking in the garden, she may be still there but hidden, or this may be a continuing regular activity. In fact all we know for certain is that the action has STARTED.

The English aspectual system is very simple. The opposition is uncompleted/completed, and when the imperfective aspect is used (present participle) we know that the action was not concluded at reference time (at the small area of event time that we make visible for the audience). And when the perfective aspect is used (perfect) we know that the action was completed at reference time.


The system is not as simple as that. The perfect is not a simple perfective aspect. I won't try to explain further, because this is a forum for Hebrew, not English. But this does illustrate how hard it is to grasp aspectual systems in a language which is not one's mother tongue, even for someone as competent in English as Rolf. And I don't think anyone today knows biblical Hebrew as well as Rolf knows English.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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