Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rolf Furuli" <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear Karl,

You have understood me correctly regarding the Hebrew view of time. Just a 
small terminological correction: "Tense" is grammaticalized location in 
time, and if this is nonexistent in classical Hebrew, "tense" cannot be 
construed on the basis of the context. It is better to use "temporal 
reference" in connection with the context.

Best regards

Rolf Furuli

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 5:02 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] verbs


> James:
>
> As a person who lives among many Chinese immigrants and who
> speaks Chinese (Cantonese and Toi San), I can assure you
> that the Chinese have no problem with the concept of tense.
> The problem they have is the fact that in Chinese, tense is
> determined by context, whereas in English it is determined
> by grammatization, and they often have problems recognizing
> and utilizing the grammatization of tenses.
>
> Similarly, Rolf Furuli as I understand him is arguing the
> same thing exists in ancient Hebrew, that the different
> forms do not reflect a grammatization of tense. Rather
> tense is to be recognized by context. Therefore, when we
> translate into English, when we use tenses, we are adding
> our understanding of the context.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
> > Thanx for your example Rolf. While most of the tenses seem to read well
> > you have left me a little confused. You have argued that your research
> > is based on the word and that the word is the basic unit of translation
> > and then you have performed a translation which is entirely based on 
> > context
> > as I have been arguing it should be.
> > ...
> >
> > I know this sounds strange and alien to speakers of tense driven 
> > languages but
> > I am told, correct me if I wrong, that Chinese languages also exhibit 
> > this
> > behaviour and that it is very difficult for the Chinese to even
> > understand the concept
> > of tenses when learning the English language.
> >
> > Hence, as you seem to have shown Rolf, it is the context which dictates 
> > the
> > translation and not the verb form and your research only seems of use to 
> > me
> > in helping a biblical hebrew student to better understand the hebrew mind
> > and concept of expression.
>
>
>
> --
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