Biblical Hebrew Forum

["s.a.breyer" <s.a.breyer AT gmail.com>]

Karl, James -

I think you mistake my objection to Rolf's statement - and quite
possibly Rolf's position as well, though it is not for me to address
that.

Rolf has evolved, and has over the years described on this list, a very
subtle and ingenious schema for analyzing time and deictic reference. (I
would point you to some of his earlier descriptions, but those
references are saved on a system to which I do not at this writing have
access.) It came therefore as something of a shock to find him
asserting, quite baldly, that "It is a fundamental linguistic truth that
verbs used in narratives have past reference." If "narrative" bears the
common sense (the sense it bears in my own discipline) "an account of
sequent events", it is demonstrably false. If, as James suggests, it
embodies a restrictive redefinition of "narrative", it is a tautology.

Stoney Breyer
Writer / Touchwood Creative