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Dear Peter,
I would like to clear up one point, which is important:
In principle a single contra-example is enough to falsify a claim. ...
... arguments such as "the language of poetry is different from that of prose, and therefore a verb form has another meaning in poetry than in prose" are not acceptable.
As to "a reasonable number" of contra-examples, in my data base there are 956 QATALs with future reference (less than 5 % are equivalent to English future perfect) and 997 WAYYIQTOLs with non-past reference. Your critical mind would of course discard a number of these, but more than enough would remain and show that the traditional views of QATAL and WAYYIQTOL do not hold. So these numbers would in my view be "a reasonable number" of contra-examples.
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