Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

I wonder, could anyone voice any argument against my simple hypothesis of
Hebrew tenses:

Deictic center shift was the original meaning of prefix waw, and tense
reversal is derivative sense. "And he would say" (wayiqtol) about past
events and "and he said" (weqatal) by a prophet who relates his vision -
evolved into "he said" and "he will say," respectively.

Some wayiqtols relate future events, "and + future tense verb" without
deictic center shift.



In other words, wayiqtol is "and yiqtol." Narrator is immersed into the past
events, his deictic center shifts, and he employs future tense about the
events, long past for his readers but still in the future from his deictic
point.

English is not very flexible about deicti center shifts, but, for example,
Russian employs deictic shifts a lot in recitals.



My explanation is the simplest, logical, and fully consistent with observed
facts.



Vadim Cherny