From: decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca (Vincent DeCaen)
To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
Subject: semantics of wayyiqtol/weqatal
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 18:01:31 -0400 (EDT)
anyone out there into formal semantics? i've been trying to model the
consecutives in BH by playing with the propositional calculus. i believe
that the following must be the key:
"sequence": A, followed by B
FORM SEMANTICS?
english: A and B A & B
hebrew: A wayyiqtol B A <--> B
similarly weqatal as A --> B
what's interesting about this approach is the difference between english
and hebrew amounts to a morpheme virtually equivalent semantically to
"then". that seems to be the intuition consistent with the traditional
term "consecutive".
i believe, then, that this opens up a coherent model, incorporating
truth-functional operators (crucially, "and", "then"), mood, tense. i've
put together some notes if anyone wants to follow this up at
this is an MSWord.doc, if you have trouble with it, please let me know.
sholom,
V
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Dr Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>
c/o Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, 4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor
University of Toronto, Toronto ON, CANADA, M5S 1A1
Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative, www.chass.utoronto.ca/~decaen/hsei/
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Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. --Dewey
semantics of wayyiqtol/weqatal,
Vincent DeCaen, 10/16/2001