Bryan,And what is the difference between these two in Russian? From my knowledge, the only difference is that the first is present and the second is past; in fact there is no way to say this in the present with a verb, for (in modern Russian at least) there is no present tense of "to be". But if you claim that there is any other real distinction here, please let us know what it is so we can consider whether it is also applicable to Hebrew.
but what is wrong with the common idea that the difference resembles that
between phrases with verb and with dash? Perhaps the noun phrase implies
deictic center shift, the author's immersion in the events which he relates
as current.
Russian, again, provides perfect analogy to the Hebrew. In Russian, you can
say both,
the entire earth - desert
the entire earth was desert
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