Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear David,

This was just a sweeping statement of yours without any 
documentation. From our previous discussions it appears that you and 
I  understand fundamental linguistic concepts completely different 
and live in two different linguistic worlds. So I see no reason for a 
discussion of Hebrew verbs between you and me.

You have also in other forums made sweeping statements, as in your 
review of my doctoral dissertation in "Journal of Asia Adventist 
Seminary".  About 18 months ago, Yitzhak Sapir raised some questions 
about the quality of my dissertation and asked if there were any peer 
reviews. Questions regarding your review should therefore be relevant 
for b-hebrew, both because of this and because of your claim in your 
last E-mail that the conclusions of my dissertation regarding YIQTOL 
and WAYYIQTOL have repeatedly been shown to be wrong on this list.

I will only mention one  point that may illuminate the claim you made 
in your last E-mail.  The most important error of your review is that 
you completely have misunderstood the basic parameters I use in my 
analysis of Hebrew verbs, namely event time, reference time, and 
deictic center. The definition of my "reference time" that you 
present is completely wrong, and is not found in the dissertation. 
And the same is true with your presentation of my "deictic center," 
where you misquote the dissertation, because you have not understood 
that my words refer to the  abstract term "deictic" and not to the 
parameter "deictic center". Therefore, many of your arguments against 
my conclusions actually hit a straw man; you cannot effectively argue 
against something that you have not understood!

At the beginning you say, "As will soon be apparent, I disagree with 
Furuli at almost every point." This is hardly a good setting for a 
real peer review, which should be a balanced, scientific discussion. 
Your words suggest that what you have written rather is a one-sided 
or biased discussion. Moreover, a peer review of a Ph.D dissertation 
should be made by a peer, by one who both have a Ph.D and is an 
expert in the field. But your lack of understanding of fundamental 
linguistic concepts and several other misunderstandings and 
misrepresentations lead me to wonder about your qualifications.

On "BibleWorks User Forum" your profile  is: "Research assistant, 
teaching Biblical Hebrew, Ph.D thesis on BH pronouns". I would like 
to ask about  the background you had when you wrote the review: Which 
grades in Hebrew and Semitics did you have? Had you at that time 
defended your doctoral dissertation? Have you published any articles 
or monographs dealing with Hebrew verbs or Semitic linguistics? How 
long have you taught Hebrew on the university level?

For the record, there are two other reviews of my dissertation that 
are diametrically different from  Kummerow's review: "Hebrew Studies" 
48 (2007) 359-62 by professor E. R Hayes, and The Society of Biblical 
Literature (http:/www.bookreviews.org/subscribe.asp) by professor 
John Kaltner.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo




> [snip]
>
> >  My challenge is: Can anyone
> >  on the basis of linguistic arguments applied to
> >  BH show that my claim is either wrong or doubtful?
> >
> >
> >  Best regards,
> >
> >  Rolf Furuli
> >  University of Oslo
>
> Hi Rolf,
>
> This has already been done repeatedly on this list. So we need not go
> over it again -- at least that is the reason why I haven't responded to
> your posts.
>
> Regards,
> David Kummerow.
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