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  • From: "Rolf" <rolf.furuli AT sf-nett.no>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] to rolf
  • Date: Tue, 28 May 2013 12:28:37 +0200

Dear Karl,

You have made several good points. I agree, contrary to George, that we
cannot interpret Hebrew verbs in the light of other languages, and we need to
analyze Biblical Hebrew according to its own standards. But here is the
problem. We cannot start with "cogito ergo sum," as did Descartes, but any
study must build on auxiliary hypotheses (cf. Duhem/Quine thesis). This means
that we must build on the works of others, and the conclusions they have
drawn. As for the Hebrew verbal system, there are too many auxiliary
hypotheses, and too many different definitions. Therefore most students of
Hebrew, including many scholars, are just parroting what others have said. I
disagree with George, but I know that he for many years have wrestled with
Hebrew verbs, and his system is a novel system that differs from others.

>From my early student days, I have sought a way to reduce the auxiliary
>hypotheses (or assumptions), and to avoid to start with a definition of
>aspect (more than twenty different definitions exist)—if we start with a
>definition, we are bound, and in a way we have violated the basic scientific
>principle: "If the conclusions of a study is given before the study starts,
>the study is not scientific." As for me, my study builds on four
>assumptions, 1) the Masoretic texts represents the the text of the Tanakh in
>the time BCE (text critical matters are of course considered), 2) a study
>of all the verbs of the Masoretic text will show the function and possibly
>the meaning of the Hebrew verbal system in the time BCE, 3) tense -not
>temporal reference) is grammaticalization of location in time, and 4)
>Hebrew, as any other language, can be analyzed by the parameters event time,
>reference time, and the deictic center. I think that most Hebrew scholars
>agree with 1) and 2), and most linguists agree with 3) and 4).

The advantage of the parameters mentioned in 3), is that by using them we can
show whether a language has tenses (semantic meaning) or only temporal
reference that must be seen from the context (conversational pragmatic
implicature). Further, these parameters can be used to find if a language has
aspects, and to describe the nature of these aspects (six basic differences
between the aspects in the languages of the world can be pinpointed). Thus,
the nature of the Hebrew aspects can be described without starting with a
particular definition.

I started with a study of tense/temporal reference. When the tense is past,
reference time (RT) comes before the deictic center (C), when it is future,
RT comes after C, and when the reference is present, RT and C coincides. An
analysis of ALL the verbs of Classical Hebrew gave the result that all verb
forms can be used with past, future and present reference. Therefore, Hebrew
does not have tenses.

It is not true that I have limited myself to a study of tense, because tense
plays only a minor part in my dissertation. As a matter of fact, aspect both
can and MUST be studied apart from tense. Aspect is non-deictic, and the
relationship between event time and reference time, which expresses the
aspect, does not say anything about tense. When reference time intersects
event time and a part of event time is made visible, there are differences in
three respects, 1) the angle of intersection (before or at the beginning, in
the middle, immediately before the end, and after the end), the breadth of
the intersection (Is the whole event time or a small of big part of it made
visible), and 3) the quality of the intersection (are details made visible or
not). Because there are two aspects, six differences can be measured, and
this has nothing to do with tense. Most of my dissertation deals with
aspectual matters, and it is shown that the the relationship between event
time and reference time is uniform in YIQTOL, WAYYIQTOL, and WEYIQTOL, and it
is uniform in QATAL and WEQATAL. However, most scholars do not accept this,
and in their models temporal references are important. Therefore, it has to a
rather great extent ben necessary for me to discuss the temporal references
of the verbs in order to compare my model to other models.

Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway



Mandag 27. Mai 2013 13:57 CEST skrev K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>:

> George:
>

>
> Rolf has done the study with greater granularity, statistical analysis,
> better knowledge of linguistics and scholarly literature, but it appears
> that he limited himself to tense. What I notice is that the Yiqtol />
> Wayyiqtol applies to a greater range of moods than does Qatal, in fact is
> often a marker that another mood applies, but that’s not its main use.
>
> I read the text first of all to analyse, what does it mean? No, not the
> subjective “What does it mean to me?” rather what does it mean objectively?
> That’s where all that I was taught about the Biblical Hebrew verb fell
> apart: tense, aspect, definite/indefinite, none of those could be
> consistently applied to the whole text.
>
> Do we go with models, or with data?
>
> Yours, Karl W. Randolph.
>
> On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 5:10 PM, George Athas
> <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:
>
> > Karl,
> >
> > I disagree with your perception that qatal and yiqtol have the same
> > definiteness. See my response to Rolf in this thread.
> >
> >
> > *GEORGE ATHAS*
> > *Dean of Research,*
> > *Moore Theological College *(moore.edu.au)
> > *Sydney, Australia*
> >
> >
> >







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