Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] BH verbal system

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Stoney Breyer" <stoneyb AT touchwoodcreative.com>
  • To: "'Rolf Furuli'" <furuli AT online.no>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] BH verbal system
  • Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 08:07:16 -0600

Well... it's a long way from "A narrative *is seen as* a recapitulation of
past experience" to a "fundamental linguistic truth" - but if that's the
useful fiction linguists employ to get to your results, and Comrie's, I
can't quarrel with it. Me, I'd treat verb form as a matter of narrative
convention and found my analysis on a virtual translation of the deictic
center - to build on a conceit you employed some years ago, I understand
narrative as a 'tracking' camera as opposed to a 'panning' camera. But I
have a professional bias towards treating narrative as displaced drama.

Stoney Breyer
Writer / Touchwood Creative

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Rolf Furuli
Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2010 11:06 AM
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] BH verbal system

Dear Stoney,

The Latin verb NARRO means "to tell something,2 and factual and
fictious events can be told in many ways. The evangelist Mark, for
example, often uses what is called historic present when he tells
something. However, in a technical linguistic sense "narrative" has a
more restricted meaning. In "Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics"
a part of Davis Crystal's definition of the word is as follows: "A
narrative is seen as a recapitulation of past experience in which
language is used to structure a sequence of (real or fictious)
events."

David Comrie in his book "Tense" (1985:61) has the following comments
regarding narrative:

"In looking for examples of relative time reference, it is essential
to ensure that the relative time reference interpretation is part of
the meaning of the form in question, rather than an implicature
derived from, in part, the context. One area which is particularly
confusing in this respect is narrative, where one gains the
impression of a sequence of events which are located temporally one
almost immediately after the other, the chronological sequence
mirrored in the linear order of clauses. Thus one might be tempted to
think that this sequence is part of the meaning of the verb forms
used, thus introducing the meaning of 'immediate past'' or 'immediate
future' relative time reference (depending of whether one defined the
time reference of the preceding verb in terms of the following verb,
vice versa). However, as was shown in section 1,8 the sequencing of
events is a property of the narrative itself, quite independent of
the verb forms used to encode narrative, so that the mere fact that
the verb forms receive this interpretation in narrative is not
sufficient evidence for assigning the meaning of these verb forms."

The point I tried to convey, was that when the WAYYIQTOL form so
often is used in Hebrew narrative, this does not mean that the form
itself is grammaticalized past. Past reference is the very nature of
narrative (in the technical linguistic sense), and therefore any form
used in narrative sequences irrespective of the semantic meaning of
the form, must have past reference. Please note that I speak of
narrative sequences, and not of situations where a sequence is broken
by direct speech or anything else.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo



>Rolf:
>
>My faith in the admirable clarity and rigor of your analysis is
>profoundly shaken by this:
>
>> It is a fundamental linguistic truth that verbs used in narratives
>have past reference.
>
>On what basis do you make this assertion? It seems to me neither
>self-evident nor borne out by linguistic fact, teste folktale and joke
>on the one hand, and the practice of many eminent writers of fiction on
>the other.
>
>Stoney Breyer
>Writer / Touchwood Creative
>
>_______________________________________________
>b-hebrew mailing list
>b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew

_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.432 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2660 - Release Date: 01/31/10
19:35:00






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page