Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] how scholars debate controversial issues

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] how scholars debate controversial issues
  • Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:40:23 -0400

Peter,

You are close to the truth, but fumbling with motors and balloons is not helpful. There is no such thing as "dynamic" and "durative" (unless it is forever) in Hebrew. Language is static not dynamic. Time is not a factor in Hebrew. The Hebrew root describes a constant material state rather than a process over time. It is a picture not a movie. The movies are produced by the imagination. Take the verb BARA, 'create', of Genesis 1:1. Was creation instantaneous (if there is such a thing), or did it take God some time to apply the glue and bang in the nails?

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Mar 28, 2007, at 4:35 PM, Peter Kirk wrote:


It seems to me that these are properties of the core or prototypical
concepts expressed by these words, rather than of the words themselves.
Yes, the prototypical concepts of "run" and "sing" are durative and
dynamic. But that does not prevent the extension of their meaning to
cases which are not durative and dynamic. If an electric motor is
running, it is surely better to consider this as a state rather than
something dynamic. If I run a computer program which does something very
simple and quick, this effectively not durative because it is complete
in as short a time as a prototypical punctual action like popping a
balloon. So I dispute that in these extended senses of "run" the word is
necessarily durative and dynamic.
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter AT qaya.org
Blog: http://www.qaya.org/blog/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/

_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page