Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 19/09/2005 20:36, Vadim Cherny wrote:

> > > Let us first consider a method. How do you expect me to prove 
> > > narrator's
> > > deictic center? Psychoanalysis? No.
> >
> >
> > OK, so you are putting forward a hypothesis which is, by your own 
> > admission, unprovable - and for the same reason is unfalsifiable. As 
> > such it can only be a speculation.
>
> Of course, not. As I described, and what is a standard method of 
> scientific proof, a hypothesis can be accepted if no contradicting 
> facts can be brought against it, and if the hypothesis is simler than 
> others.


This is not proper scientific method. A hypothesis like this which 
cannot in principle be falsified cannot be established by the absence of 
falsification.

> > I think you need to suggest how it is even reasonable to consider 
> > that a habitual action in the past is described from a deictic centre 
> > shifted even further into the past, when there is no evidence at all 
> > for such a deictic shift.
> The discussed fact of using future tense to describe past events is 
> just such evidence.
> I assume, you don't dispute that deictic shifts exist.
I dispute that such deictic shifts exist in Hebrew, at least unless you 
can provide evidence of them. I accept that they exist in Russian in the 
case of indirect speech and similar.

> > > To prove b), I invoke Russian and English examples, and show that such
> > > shifts are not alien to human mentality.
> >
> >
> > The English example, "would" for a past habit, certainly does not 
> > indicate a deictic shift into the past.
>
>
> I can settle for calling that idiomatic usage, and then we can discuss 
> whether that idiomatic usage originally arose from deictic center shifts.


It did not. It arose from the past tense of the verb "will" = "want".

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



--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.2/105 - Release Date: 19/09/2005