Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>]

It is completely impossible to start out with no ideas. But it is possible to 
start out
with the right motivation. 
I think the value of Rolf's research should not be determined or undermined 
by the influences 
he has had but by the fruit of his labours. His arguments stand up to 
criticism and are very
purely liguistically based. He has analysed the usage of the forms and has 
both seen and shown
that their usage is not uniform enough to grammaticalise tense into the verb 
form itself.

He is agreeing with you but coming from another direction.
You (Peter) and I are very strong proponents of contextual influences in 
translation and Rolf's 
conclusions lead to the same thing. As he has proven that tense is not 
grammaticalised in the verb
forms it is the context, not the verb-form, which dictates the tense to be 
used in English.

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Peter Kirk
Sent: Tue 8/9/2005 10:46 PM
To: Rolf Furuli
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] tenses; frequency
 
On 09/08/2005 21:41, Rolf Furuli wrote:

>... And a very important methodological question is this: Is an assumption 
>behind my research that Hebrew has a particular number of conjugations, 
>four, three, or two? For example, If we use the axiom that Hebrew has four 
>conjugations, then we end up with four. In addition to looking for prejudice 
>in the material, we need to be conscious of our own prejudices. ...
>

Indeed, Rolf. And this is a question which you have never answered 
unambiguously concerning your own research. Do you assume any particular 
number of conjugations? Did you begin by assuming or preferring any 
particular number of them? If so, even if you formally abandoned such a 
presupposition, did you retain any prejudice which might have caused you 
to prefer an analysis which in fact corresponds with a previous preference?

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

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