Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Stoney Breyer" <stoneyb AT touchwood.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Vadim Cherny [mailto:VadimCherny AT mail.ru] 
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 12:34 PM
To: Stoney Breyer; b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] tenses - Ex 3:14


> VADIM: it is assumed that English has future tense.
> 
> SB: Of course English has future tense; it is not grammatical,
however,
> but lexical. English utterances have tense but English *verbs* do not.

VADIM: write-wrote

SB: It ain't that simple.

Granted, one would normally infer a past reference from the utterance
"You wrote" tout simple; if you wrote the words above to imply that
"wrote" may have past reference, then to that extent I would agree. But
if you now wrote "'wrote' is the past tense of the verb 'write'" I would
disagree. And if you wrote tomorrow "I continue to insist that 'wrote'
is the past tense of the verb 'write'" I would continue to disagree.

OR

Granted, one would normally infer a past reference from the utterance
"You wrote" tout simple; if you write the words above to imply that
"wrote" may have past reference, then to that extent I will agree. But
if you now write "'wrote' is the past tense of the verb 'write'" I will
disagree. And if you write tomorrow "I continue to insist that 'wrote'
is the past tense of the verb 'write'" I will continue to disagree.

Stoney Breyer
Writer/Touchwood, Inc.