Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

Hello Paul:

Thanks for your comments.

I will look into it.

But, we have here a concrete, real world, usage & example ... ; deuteronomy
2:25 with two related verbs. ( i acknowledge dissent from the adjective
"related").

Three options exist as to why the author(s) selected yiqtol for the first
verb (אחל )  (alef; chet; lamed); and weqatal for the second verb (וחלו )
(waw; chet; lamed; waw):

a. we have no clue;

b. no reason exists; either form (yiqtol, qatal) would suffice in either
usage;

c. a precise reason exists; and here it is .........

If option "c" represents the correct answer; I would love to hear it.

regards,

fred burlingame

On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 10:54 PM, Paul Zellmer <pzellmer AT sc.rr.com> wrote:

> Fred,
>
> If you are seriously interested in finding the logic between the choice of
> grammatical forms, I suggest you look into a discourse analysis of the
> language.  Most of the work has been done using narratives, although I have
> heard of some work that was being done on the poetical passages.
>
> About fifteen years (or was it more), listmember Bryan Rocine wrote first
> year grammar, _Learning Biblical Hebrew: A New Approach Using Discourse
> Analysis_, as a project for his Master's degree.  It was so straight forward
> that I was able to use it to train national translators in the Philippines.
>  You might be able to contact Bryan to see if the work is still available.
>  I believe he's living in Syracuse.
>
> But the bottom line is that there are reasons that can be determined for
> the choice of weqatal, wayyiqtol, x-qatal, and x-yiqtol.  The selection is
> not arbitrary.
>
> Paul Zellmer
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:
> b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of fred burlingame
> Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2011 7:25 PM
> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [b-hebrew] verb form choice
>
> Hello all;
>
> In deuteronomy 2:25, we have:
>
> a. the verb אחל (alef, chet, lamed) manifest in yiqtol form; and
>
> b. the verb וחלו (waw, chet, lamed, waw) expressed in weqatal form.
>
> Since yiqtol and qatal forms appear susceptible of encoding the same menu
> of
> tenses and aspects, does some context or other reason necessitate the
> selection of these two forms, for these two verbs, in these two instances,
> respectively? Or does the appearance of these two forms represent a mere
> arbitrary choice by the author, the choice of the other form representing
> proper grammar also?
>
> I invite your comments.
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
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