Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

Karl katav

> Then T-A-M, because it is time based, does not apply to Biblical Hebrew.
>

Karl, your understanding of the term T-A-M is wrong and you are making an
issue out of a non-issue.

T-A-M is a neutral term and provides no definition or restriction on any
language, including BH. It's sort of like (but not identical to) using three
nodes, say R-B-Y, for color definitions. Neutral means neutral. If a
language had zero verb morphology marking then one might even speculate that
it's TAM system was 0-0-0, zero tense, zero aspect, zero mood. That is, that
language would not have a TAM system in the verb. But if a language has
verbal morphology beyond a single category, then it is expected that it has
some kind of TAM system. The following statements would be correct use of
Tense-Aspect-Mood:

"The TAM system in Karl's BH has a zero value for any tense component."
"The TAM system in Joshua Blau's BH includes some tense within the system."

Lots of languages have murky systems and a term like TAM allows one to talk
about them without absolute commitment to one point or another. You yourself
claim that Hebrew is murky. It's TAM system is not clear in your eyes.

Of course, if you want to take issue with Joshua Blau's conceptions about
how the Hebrew verb system works, or your own, please start a new thread.
Blau was the president of the Hebrew Language Academy 1981-1993 though he
cut his teeth on medieval Arabic.

I think we're finished with TAM.

blessings
Randall


-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth AT gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
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