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  • From: George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>
  • To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Participle or Qatal?
  • Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:18:23 +0000

Hi Chavout!

I'd disagree with your assessment, though it is in keeping with old standard
grammar. The assumption in your assessment is that the participle indicates
ongoing action, while the qatal does not. Actually, the participle is simply
a verbal adjective and there isn't really any specific imperfective aspect to
it. You'll find the participle being used to describe perfective aspect as
well, so the concept of aspect with a participle is not really very useful.
The Qatal indicates a definite action, which usually means an action that has
occurred or 'materialised'. But once again I don't think the
perfective/imperfective polarity is helpful for understanding the qatal verb,
since the weqatal (which is just a qatal with a conjunction attached) is
often taken as imperfective.

I think Karl's short sketch of the significance of the participle and qatal
in this particular instance is correct.


GEORGE ATHAS
Director of Postgraduate Studies,
Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
Sydney, Australia



From: Chavoux Luyt <chavoux AT gmail.com<mailto:chavoux AT gmail.com>>
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:41:06 +0200
To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Participle or Qatal?

For me there is a slight difference in nuance as well with the
participle including the idea of an ongoing giving whereas qatal would
emphasize the fact that it was given once for allways.

Regards
Chavoux Luyt




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