Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Dear Philip:

On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 6:38 PM, Philip <philipengmann AT yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Listees,

 

this has been a fascinating discussion (throwing in several different angles); and I have ben following it with great interest.

 

However, my original question wasn't answered.

I thought the whole discussion was the answer to your question.

If you’re talking about the Masoretic points, they indicate Piel, but what does the Piel signify? You’ll get different answers from different people.

Some people claim that it represents intensification.

Others that it is a stative verb.

A few claim that each Binyan represents a complete change in the meaning of a verb, therefore may be more accurately listed by each Binyan.

But I’ve raised the question, is Piel an indicator of the imperfective aspect? This is yet a very tentative conclusion, which I can be talked out of given a convincing argument, but seems to fit at least some instances of verbal use. Anyways, the Masoretic points are wrong, definitely in that they don’t preserve Biblical era pronunciation, and sometimes wrong even within their schema. So was the original a Piel verb?

So the answer to your original question is … depends on who you ask.

 

Philip Engmann

Karl W. Randolph.