Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear  Stephen,


> Hi Rolf,
>
> Thank you for outlining your linguistic approach to the analysis of 
> WAYYIQTOL. I have a question: Does your approach assume that if 
> WAYYIQTOL is ever a past tense, then it must always be a past tense?

No, i do not believe that WAYYIQTOL is ever past tense (past 
grammaticalization of locations in time)..


> The reason I ask is because of something you asserted about the 
> English form "went" (on 23/6 - yes, I'm a way behind):
>
> <snip>
> The form "went" has an intrinsic past reference that is not caused 
> by the context. There may be exceptions, but again, they can be 
> explained as exceptions.
> ...
> 3) Liz went home.
> </snip>
>
> This is not correct. In some contexts the form "went" is modal, for example:
>
> 1) If you went to Australia, you would find some of their English 
> dialects very difficult to understand.
>
> In this type of construction, the temporal reference that the "went" 
> form definitely cannot have is past; if it has temporal reference, 
> it is probably future. However, nobody would deny, on the basis of 
> this, that "went" is past tense in your example, Liz went home.
>
> Two conclusions: (1) the presence or absence of tense is not 
> inextricably tied to a verb form, and (2) the "semantic value" of a 
> verb form must take into account wider contextual considerations (or 
> better, wider constructional considerations).


I do not follow your reasoning, particularly because you have to 
define the deictic center.

> Does this fit with your methodology? The reason it seems important 
> is that the "went" form in English would similarly have past 
> reference the vast majority of the time, but with present and/or 
> future exceptions. (I apologise that I cannot check myself whether 
> this has any relevance to your dissertation, but I do not have 
> access to it presently.)

Sorry, but I do not understand how this has any bearing on Hebrew.

> Regards,
> Stephen Shead
> Centro de Estudios Pastorales
> Santiago, Chile


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo