Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

I think that the term "tense" is foreign to Hebrew, and is inherently misleading. Hebrew does not have time indicators; there is no such thing in Hebrew as ANIY <–AKAL, with a back-pointing arrow to indicate past action, as opposed to ANIY AKAL–>, with a forward-pointing arrow to indicate future action. As I see it, the Hebrew verb is but a root supplanted by personal pronouns for the actors involved in the act. 

By a certain agreement, and by a certain agreement only, an aft personal pronoun is used to indicate past action, as in say $ALAXTA = $ALAX-TA, 'you have sent', while a fore personal pronoun is used to indicate future action, as in TI$LAX = TI-$LAX, 'you will send'. 

An English equivalent system would have been: banana eat-I for past action, and banana I-eat for future action.  

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Dec 5, 2012, at 1:15 PM, Jerry Shepherd wrote:

I am, however, not convinced that the Hebrew verbal system is tenseless.