Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

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.