Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> > No. I specifically mentioned that both English and Hebrew use grammatical 
> > future tense in idiomatic form. ...
>
> You appear to be under the impression that "I (you, he, etc) will X" is 
> "the grammatical future tense" of the English verb X. Fair enough if that 
> is just a label, although in that case it is a misleading one.

On one hand, "grammatical future tense" is a label, similar to yiqtol in 
Hebrew grammar.
On other hand, idioms have their etymology. It is not incidental that they 
employ future tense instead of any other. The original meaning of the idioms 
was related to future tense.

I would say (idiom), he is at home now. If you allow me to speak my opinion, 
I would say (future) that he is at home now. (No deictic shift)
Every time I would meet him (idiom), I would tell him. Speaker is transposed 
back; at least some meetings are in future for him. Thus, future tense with 
deictic shift.

Vadim Cherny