A six year old English girl masters her mother tongue with the
aspects, tenses and moods without knowing a single grammatical rule.
A Hebrew girl in the 1st millennium B. C. E. would master her
language in a similar way. Both would learn their language the
natural way from informants (parents and friends). When we try to
describe a dead language by way of induction without informants, we
sometimes come up with rather complex rules. That does not make the
language itself complex, but we, who describe the dead language by
the help of a second language, need to write such a grammar. So, the
simple thoughts of the Hebrew girl helped her to master her language,
the rather complex definitions of aspect and mood help us to
understand her language.
Best regards
Rolf
Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo
Chris,
You're talking of the people who wouldn't even understand a notion of
perfect tense. Those were very simple folks. Don't ascribe to them a love to
modern grammar.