Biblical Hebrew Forum

[dwashbur AT nyx.net]

On 31 Jan 2010 at 19:59, James Christian wrote:

> 
> Hi David, but as you yourself said 'the forms are identical'. We
> call it a subjunctive when we have 
> certain pragmatic clues (e.g. clause starts with 'if') and when the
> forms are used with a 'past' 
> function we call them 'past simple'. And yet there are no different
> forms to analyse. Other than 
> contextual clues they are completely identical and so we have to
> analyse the form rather than 
> our perceptions of its uses. 

Not at all.  We understand that they are homonyms.  In English the two forms 
melded into a 
single visual/auditory string; the qualifier "if" is our cue that we have one 
homonym and not 
the other.  They are not the same "word" (however that term is defined) 
distinguished only 
by "certain pragmatic clues."  I agree that BH didn't grammaticalize either 
tense or aspect (I 
extend this to the notion of "sequence," but that's another topic) but you 
have not shown this 
for English.  That's my only quibble.

Dave Washburn

http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur