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  • From: "Stoney Breyer" <stoneyb AT touchwood.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] tenses
  • Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 07:36:46 -0500



-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Penner [mailto:pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca]
What label would you give to the difference in meaning between 'write'
and
'wrote'? Or would you say there is no difference in meaning?

What's the context? In some instances the difference is tense:

You wrote letters.
You write letters.

In another context the difference might be modal:

If you wrote more often I would write back.

And in some contexts there is, indeed, no difference, or only a
stylistic:

Vadim disagrees with what I wrote there.
Vadim disagrees with what I write there.

It seems to me that it is not the form which conveys the meaning, but
the meaning which demands the form.

Stoney Breyer
Writer/Touchwood







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