Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Verbal Aspect (was Tenses - Deut 6:4)

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Verbal Aspect (was Tenses - Deut 6:4)
  • Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 18:16:48 +0000

On 05/03/2007 16:55, Rolf Furuli wrote:
...
RF
The general word "everything" was meant to signal that all the uses of verbs
in the Tanakh can be explained without a single exception by the
two-component model presented in my dissertation. In the last chapter, I discuss this from the point of view of the Philosophy of Science. When definitions can explain every use, they either are too vague (thus explaining nothing) or they are close to outlining the true nature of the system.

Well, Rolf, how would you react to my suggestion that your explanation is too vague and so explains nothing? That is my understanding of your work. For as far as I know you have not explained the observed pattern of verb forms, you have simply explained them away as pragmatic rather than semantic. Nevertheless there must have been some reason (even if it was just the toss of a coin!) why Hebrew authors chose particular verb forms in particular cases, and in fact rather consistently at least in narrative. Dismissing these issues as pragmatic is not an explanation.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter AT qaya.org
Blog: http://www.qaya.org/blog/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page