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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] language level

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  • From: "Paul Zellmer" <pzellmer AT sc.rr.com>
  • To: "'fred burlingame'" <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] language level
  • Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 08:04:10 -0500

Fred,

I accidentally permanently deleted your last response. But you were asking
about the yiqtol (actually X-yiqtol, which indicates that the verb is not the
first element of the clause) as compared to the weqatal occurring later in
Deut 2:25 and which happened to enjoy the same remaining root letters as was
found in the yiqtol.

Realize that, although both occur in the same verse by the modern
enumeration, the verbs occur in two different statements. We do not have
here a straight narrative, rather, the verse is part of an embedded
discourse. And discourse in any language is normally made of short clauses
or groups of clauses. The second statement starts with שמעך--he hears (of)
you and continues with two weqatals. The three verbs make a group of actions
that are related to each other and says nothing about their relative timing
of occurrence. The only way we know that the actions are future is from the
context surrounding the group, which happens to be predictive. It is this
predictive quality that was marked by the X-yiqtol, the form of the first
verb in your question.

This is probably as clear as mud to you. You really need to do some research
in discourse analysis to find out why these forms were purposeful selections.
I already referred you to Bryan Rocine's grammar.

Paul Zellmer





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