snip
Hi Rolf,
Thanks, too, for the discussion. I still have trouble understanding your
view. Do you have a website where you make your dissertation available
for pdf download? Or an ftp server where you might be able to upload it
for a time? Or email it to me? I would like to read your whole, indepth
discussion rather than just emails. Anyway, a few more questions and
clarifications below (this thread is drawing to a close).
Regarding the infinitive absolute used as a narrative verb, if this is
the case then I agree that it would not express tense or aspect.
However, if over time it remained consistently used in this way, even
becoming to be restricted to this use, my feeling is that it would
acquire a tense due to its consistent, restricted use. That's what
happened with the participle in Hebrew: no one would have at first
admitted that it was a present tense, but over time due to its
consistent use it did (you may dispute this, I guess). But that's not
what you say regarding wayyiqtol, even though your hypothesis is that
due to its consistent use it aquired a different stress etc from weyiqtol.
But why, then, are imperfective verbs in the thousands used in Hebrew
narratives contrary to what is normal in other languages? I define
(this is
a broad definition) the imperfective aspect as a close-up view of a small
part of an event with details visible. This means that when the
imperfective
aspect is used there are three big options (and several smaller ones)
available regarding what is focussed upon:
1) The beginning and a small part of the action.
2) Progressive action after the beginning and before the end.
3) The end and a resultant state.
In contrast with the perfective aspect, the imperfective one cannot make
visible both beginning and end. It is also worth noting that the
imperfective aspect is open-ended even when the end of the event is
included
in its focus, because the end of the resultant state is not seen.
OK, this is where I really have trouble comprehending, esp. option 3).
How might you understand Ruth 1:3, for example - wayyamot - in the light
of your theory? Option 1) doesn't really work - "he began to die".
Option 2 doesn't really work - "continued to die". And option 3 doesn't
really work as the verb doesn't express the end of a predication but the
whole perfective event of the death.
Regards,
David Kummerow.
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