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

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  • From: Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc: jljustiss AT msn.com, randallbuth AT gmail.com
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] BH verbal system
  • Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2010 14:17:25 +0200

The discussion of Hebrew verbal system stems from basic misunderstanding of deictic center shifts. They are not prominent in Roman-German languages, and so the scholars brought up in those languages cannot easily understand the Hebrew system.

The Hebrew verbal system is, however, closely paralleled in Russian.

I have argued for years, and my point of view apparently gains some following, that Hebrew has a standard past-future tense system - but with massive use of deictic center shifts. Such shifts only occur in narrations, as is the case with recitals in Russian.

The narrator transposes himself into the narrated time, and the events which are past for the reader remain future for the narrator. Similarly, in prophecies the narrator transposes himself into the future events, and some of them become past for him.

Interestingly, Russian uses exactly the same construction for deictic center shifts: "And + FT", just like"waw + yiqtol" in Hebrew.

As for weqatal, it is about highly assured events. Again, the construction of "Exclamation + PT" is common in Russian for very strong commands (ну, сделал, быстро!). Unsurprisingly, weqatal generally appears in commandments which, though referring to future events, are treated as done.
Weqatal is also used in prophetic narrations to speak about the events which had become past for the narrator.

This can be approximated in English:

catav - wrote
yictov - will write
wayictov - and [on that day] he would write. "And + Future tense".
weqatal - Shoot him! Now! Done! (instead of "do it!"). "I want to see you having shot him!" Or, "treat is as a done deal" refers to future with past. "And + Past Tense".

Vadim Cherny



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