Biblical Hebrew Forum

[dwashbur AT nyx.net]

On 22 Apr 2009 at 13:37, George Athas wrote:

> Scuba diving, eh? Some of us have time to kill... ;)

Too much at times, but for the time being I'm not complaining :-D

> It´s the yiqtol that conveys habitual action in the past. For example,
> 1 Sam 2.19 uses a yiqtol, ????, to describe Hannah´s habit of making
> the boy Samuel a robe to wear, which she would take to him each year.
> To me, this action is realis. However, since we are not focusing on
> one particular instance of this action, our vIew of the ?ction is
> indefinite. Therefore, as far as habitual past action goes,
> ~indefiniteTM seems to fit?

OK, I see what you mean now.  I take an approach rather similar to Galia 
Hatav's, in that I
put most such uses into a kind of catch-all category "modal," which includes 
not only your
"indefinite" but also future, subjunctival, etc. etc. etc.  That's one place 
where I differ from a
lot of grammarians: I look for unifying factors in usages, in an attempt to 
find not just
descriptive, but explanatory adequacy.  "Indefinite" seems like as good a 
word as any for
this usage.  How do you see this "indefinite" function relating to other 
functions of the yiqtol?

Dave Washburn

On 22 Apr 2009 at 12:25, George Athas wrote:
>
> > Dave,
> >
> > Good question. I like the realis/irrealis distinction, and often use
> > it to supplement my definitions in the classroom. The only qualm I
> > have with it is I'm not sure it adequately describes habitual action
> > in the past. Such actions are, to my mind, realis. To see them,
> > however, as indefinite, I think overcomes this problem.
> >
> > I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.
>
> I confess there's a lot of recent discussion that I haven't been following 
> (too focused on
> scuba diving!).  Could you expand a couple of things for me:  which form(s) 
> do you see
> denoting habitual action in the past, and how do you define "indefinite" in 
> the context that
> you're using it?
>
> Dave Washburn
>
>
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