I suspect you may be referring to my work when you say a significant change
had occurred in the Hebrew verb system by the end of the period in which the
Dead Sea Scrolls were written. (Or were you thinking of Kutscher?)
It is true that I demonstrated in my dissertation that the DSS Hebrew verbs
do not grammaticalize aspect (i.e., viewpoint aspect, as defined by Comrie or
Binnick). But I would not say that this is a change from Biblical Hebrew,
since I am not convinced that Biblical Hebrew grammaticalized aspect either
(despite the recent work by Cook and Furuli). Of the theories regarding
Biblical Hebrew, I am intrigued by those giving prominence to modality (e.g.,
Joosten, Hatav), especially since modality is prominent in Mishnaic Hebrew
and the evidence from Qumran is consistent with a theory that the verb forms
grammaticalize modality.
Ken
Ken M. Penner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies,
Acadia Divinity College,
Wolfville, Nova Scotia,
Canada B4P 2R6.
(902)585-2213 http://purl.org/net/kmpenner/
> On 07/03/2007 16:47, Rolf Furuli wrote:
> > ...
> > To say that "we know that there were significant changes in
> the Hebrew
> > verb system " is a very strong statement. ...
>
> Maybe too strong if related only to the period of the Tanakh.
> But the period I was talking about included that of the DSS.
> And I understand that it is generally understood that a
> significant change had occurred by the end of that period. I
> agree that earlier changes are less certain.
>
> --
> Peter Kirk