Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Penner [mailto:pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca] 
The below assertion [that " English utterances have tense; English verbs
do not"] is using the word "tense" in an unconventional way. By
definition, tense is grammaticalised expression of location in time. 

SB: We've been working with Vadim's looser definition, "Tense describes
the reference time from narrator's point of view." My argument was that
a) as you say, "verb forms out of context do not" have tense, and b)
specifically, "will [Verb]" is not a grammaticalization but a
lexicalization of temporal reference.

Stoney Breyer
Writer/Touchwood, Inc.