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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Tenses and aspects; was: footnotes

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Vadim Cherny <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Tenses and aspects; was: footnotes
  • Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 18:05:49 +0100

On 08/08/2005 07:58, Vadim Cherny wrote:

... Does he choose statistically most
common translation? Or, perhaps, a translation justified by the context?

Or,

by the historical perspective? Or, by his exegesis needs? ...

Not his or her personal needs of course, but his or her exegesis of the
text, with a view to the context, the historical perspective etc. It is
impossible to translate without doing this kind of exegesis.



Why? I cannot imagine exegetical needs affecting, say, Livy or, say, Beowulf
translation. Even Sumerian texts, open to variant readings, are generally
translated without recourse to preconceptions.


Vadim, you clearly don't have a clue about how professional translation is done.

...

Exegetical needs sometimes give rise to grammatical superstitions like the
ludicrous idea that Hebrew lacked tenses. See how many advocates of that
bizarre assumption are around, even though there is not a single language
around--nor could there be for obvious semantical reasons--that lack tenses.
Chinese, for example, has tenses in adverbial format, but since there is no
comparable constructs in Hebrew, Rolf et al want us to believe that Hebrews
did not distinguish between past and future. Thus, exegetical needs produce
not only the garbled grammar, but garbled philosophy.


Do you know more about Burmese than the professional linguists who state that it has no tenses?

Of course Hebrew had some obvious adverbial devices for stating clearly whether an event was past, present or future if necessary.

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





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