Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Thank you, Rolf.
That variety doesn't sound like conforming to the aspect hypothesis, does 
it? If anything, future tense dominates.
Much of the present tense could be translated future in Russian and so, 
possibly be understood as future by Hebrews.
Add some deictic shifts for the past (5% deictic shifts in emphatic 
narration sound plausible).
Jussive is idiomatic of future (though I agree with Peter that jussive was a 
separate tense originally, I think that yiqtol-form future originated from 
jussive or imperative).
Other modals, many of them are idiomatic future.
Overall, figures do not contradict the tense hypothesis.

Vadim Cherny


> In his work "The Enigma of the Hebrew Verbal System" (1982), Leslie McFall 
> presents the results of his study of how Hebrew verbs are translated by 
> the Revised Standard Version. Regarding YIQTOL he has the following 
> numbers (p. 187):
>
> Past: 774
> Present 3,376
> Future: 5,451
> Non-present Modal: 1,200
> Past modal: 423
> Imperative: 2,133
> Jussive/Cohortative: 789
> Non-verbal: 153.