Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Verbal Aspect

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Ruth Mathys <ruth_mathys AT sil.org>
  • To: "b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Verbal Aspect
  • Date: Wed, 29 May 2013 10:37:42 +1000

The fact that I'm posting from an SIL address says nothing about my grasp of
linguistics. Yes, I have had some training; but I am far from being an
expert. You would do better to listen to Rolf.

The definition of aspect that Karl has been referring to
(http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOflinguisticTerms/WhatIsAVerbLing
uistics.htm):

"Aspect is a grammatical category associated with verbs that expresses a
temporal view of the event or state expressed by the verb."

This is pretty useless as a definition because it says nothing about the
nature of the 'temporal view'. You need to reference the definitions of
'perfective' and 'imperfective' as well to get any idea of what is being
talked about.

perfective: "Perfective aspect is an aspect that expresses a temporal view
of an event or state as a simple whole, apart from the consideration of the
internal structure of the time in which it occurs."

imperfective: "Imperfective aspect is an aspect that expresses an event or
state, with respect to its internal structure, instead of expressing it as a
simple whole."

Note how these definitions talk about how the event is *expressed*, i.e. how
it is described by language, not some quality that it possesses
intrinsically. So one of the key things to realise about aspect is that it
belongs more-or-less entirely to the speaker's *conceptualisation* of the
event. It has no real-world solidity. Exactly the same event can be
described using either a perfective or an imperfective form. (Though it's
true that certain events have a preference for one or the other aspect, e.g.
events that have already taken place tend towards perfective aspect; events
like hiccupping that consist of a repeated micro-event tend to prefer
imperfective aspect.) In other words, I agree with George's definition.

Aktionsart, or actionality, is something that adheres to the real-world
nature of an event. Hiccupping is a repeated micro-event. Being old is a
state. Sleeping is something that starts and then stops, but while you're
doing it, one moment looks exactly the same as the next. Exploding is a
punctual event -- it doesn't have a start or an end, it just happens.

There are complex interactions between Aktionsart and aspect. Sleeping
lends itself to imperfective and exploding to perfective, but it's still
possible to say "The bomb was exploding everywhere" in order to focus on the
multiplicity of pieces flying around.

As for Rolf's list of other terms ("perfective punctual, aorist,
resultative, momentaneous, imperfective, progressive, imperfect, linear,
continuative, durative, cursive, inchoative, ingressive, inceptive,
continuative, progressiv, egressive, resukltative, terminative, iterative,
effective, finitive, frequentative"), a given language may specifically mark
some of these things, or they may just be implications deriving from the
intersection of the verb's intrinsic Aktionsart, the basic
perfective/imperfective distinction as marked on the verb, and the overall
context.

To give a Hebrew example that you can all shoot down, a yiqtol that occurs
in past time context seems to imply habitual action ("he used to").

I am too much of a novice at Hebrew to have any idea what is going on with
the verbs. I just know that the approach taken by Longacre, Buth, Rocine
etc. is the one that has helped me to read with understanding. I am still
very perplexed by the fact that the yiqtol form is often modal.

Karl asked:
> what term is used to indicate whether a grammaticalization or syntactical
> construct refers to an action that definitely will, is, has happened as
> opposed to another indefinite action that should, might happen?

I would call that realis vs irrealis, but that is an area of verb meaning
that is very fuzzy for me. There does seem to be some of that happening as
well with Hebrew verbs...maybe?

Ruth Mathys







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page