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  • From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Verbal Aspect (was Tenses - Deut 6:4)
  • Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:49:15 +1100


Hi Rolf,

Comments below:



Dear David,

It takes much time to participate in discussions like this one, and I am on the
point of finishing a book. So I cannot continue much longer. Just a few short questions:

I agree, I have work to continue, too. But your prompting helps to think of things in different ways.



1) What is the "prototypical funtion" of a verb? How can it be identified? On the basis of texts? Or is the identification just guesswork without any controlling parameters to check the conclusions?


Prototype theory is now used within (functional?) linguistics for understanding conceptual categorisation of lexical stock, parts-of-speech, etc (see, eg, Croft 2001; Croft & Cruse 2004). Central to this theory is that some members of a category are more prototypical members, while others are more peripheral. Regarding the prototypical function of a verbal form, this is admittedly a difficult task for a dead language. This is where typology is helpful (see Miller 2004): it provides a framework in which the possibilities and functional constraints are shown. Added to this is the area of grammaticalisation theory. All of this helps to reveal what the options and non-options are, the identification of constructions, the primacy of certain constructions over others, etc.

2) How can we distinguish between past tense (grammaticalised location in time) and past reference (when the reference is based on the context and not on the verb form)?

For BH I suggest: though an analysis of paradigmatic verbal contrasts, diachronic change, constructional analysis, etc. What we do know is that Hebrew moves from aspect to tense over time. At some point, then, there will be a stage where the language is unstable with respect to tense and aspect. It is not as if one week the language marked verbs for aspect and then the next marked tense. At some stage there will have been a state of flux and change. I think this is something of the case for BH. As such, tense-only and aspect-only theories do not seem to work: hence all the debate. So while my tense labels for the verb forms are attempts at identifying prototypical functions, they are just that, prototypical. The language has not absolutely moved to tense, so there are discrepancies, exceptions, whatever you want to call them. But this is only natural for language.



A few examples:

1a) And I heard (WAYYIQTOL) a voice. Isaiah 6:8

This example shows that even though I assign the functional label of "narrative past tense" to wayyiqtol, it still can appear in narration. But qatal has basically displaced its use here. Thus I agree with those who make a distinction between narrative and narration.


1b) I heard a voice (YIQTOL). Job 4:16

The language of Job is difficult, complicated by an uncertain date and poetry. Some even identify Arabian influences. I admit I haven't yet read Rata 2004. Interesting, though, is the interchange of verbal forms throughout the speech. Is this like the tense-shifting of the Psalms (a la Buth 1984, 1986)? Is this for dramatic reasons (historical presents, etc)?


1c) And the Queen of Sheba heard (participle) the report, 1 Kings 10:1

The participle is often used in narrative to express attendant circumstances of the main verb (cf Nash 1992). Functionally, the participle clause here is semantically dependent to the following wayyiqtol main clause. This is regular usage of the participle.



1d) When Hiram heard (infinitive) the message of Solomon. 1 Kings 5:21 /5:7/

The construction wayehi + ke + infinitive is an adverbial time clause semantically dependent to the following wayyiqtol main clause (cf van der Merwe 1997a, 1997b). This is regular usage of this construction.





2a) And the messenger came (WAYYIQTOL). 2 Kings 10:8

Narrative past tense, prototypical usage.


2b) By de way he came (YIQTOL). 2 Kings 19:33

This is future here, not past: By the way he will come, he will return.


2c) And look! Esau came (participle). Genesis 33:1

hinneh regularly selects the participle.


2d) When Abraham came (infinitive) to Egypt. Genesis 12:14

Same as infinitive construction above. Regular usage.



In these examples with WAYYIQTOL, YIQTOL, participle, and infinitive respectively, the event occurred before the deictic center (the vantage point of the story teller). How can we distinguish past reference from past tense in these examples? Are there any criteria, or is it just guesswork?
In my dissertation there are several hundred similar examples.

Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo


Buth, Randall. 1984. “Hebrew Poetic Tenses and the Magnificat.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 21: 67-83.
Buth, Randall. 1986. “The Taxonomy and Function of Hebrew Tense-Shifting in the Psalms (qātal–yiqtol–yiqtol–qātal, Antithetical Grammatical Parallelism).” Selected Technical Articles Related to Translation 15: 26-32.
Croft, William. 2002. Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic Theory in Typological Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Croft, William and D. Alan Cruse. 2004. Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Miller, Cynthia L. 2004. “Methodological Issues in Reconstructing Language Systems from Epigraphic Fragments.” Pages 281-305 in The Future of Biblical Archaeology: Reassessing Methodologies and Assumptions. Edited by James K. Hoffmeier and Alan Millard. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Nash, Peter T. 1992. “The Hebrew Qal Active Participle: A Non-Aspectual Backgrounding Element.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.
Rata, Cristian G. 2004. “The Verbal System in the Book of Job.” PhD diss., University of Toronto.
van der Merwe, Christo H. J. 1997. “Reconsidering Biblical Hebrew Temporal Expressions.” Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 10: 42-61.
van der Merwe, Christo H. J. 1997. “‘Reference Time’ in Some Biblical Temporal Constructions.” Biblica 78: 503-524.


Regards,
David Kummerow.




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