Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear Randall,


You have a long experience in teaching languages, and you have made 
many fine contributions to the list.  But I think the list-members 
would benefit more if you expressed yourself is a clear and distinct 
way. As a linguist I have worked with Classical and Semitic languages 
for many years, but I simply do not understand what you are saying. 
What in the world does it mean that "the T-A-M system of Hebrew is 
continued by induction with the sequential verb structures"? And 
further: "this is not the way Hebrew works"?


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo



> My responses had assumed more than tautology in your response,
> especially since one of the common 'explanations' ('first [and second]
> year lies') is that the T-A-M system of Hebrew is continued by
> induction with the sequential verb structures. Which is not how Hebrew
> works. Not only does that 'inducted TAM' not fit the data, as
> mentioned, but it doesn't explain why Hebrew would have two sequential
> structures for a single process of induction. The two structures carry
> different TAM. Perhaps we're agreed on this.
>
> braxot