Hi David,
I thank you for indulging me for I am not as current in my reading as I
once was or ought to be.
The reason I asked about strings of qatals is because I doubt that qatal
is used, except in an exceptional case, to advance story time. In
contrast to an exceptional case here and there, a string would
represent, of course, something more than an exception, and lots of
strings...well, you get the idea. As you know the usefulness of a form
for advancing story time is germane to the discussion of BH verbal
semantics.
I'll explain why I still find the below examples of strings unconvincing.
David Kummerow wrote:
> Gday Bryan,
>
> Yes, I did say that qatals in narration are dominantly used to narrate.
> Here's a few examples pulled from Anstey's dissertation: 1 Sam 4:17 (I
> see we disagree on this verse); Jer 12:1-13; Josh 2:9-12.
>
>
You have already heard my thoughts on 1 Sam 4:17.
Do we consider Jeremiah "first Temple" corpus? Besides, the Jer text is
poetry. Doesn't count.
In the Josh text I tally 8/10 qatals in dependent clauses. Again, they
don't count. The only qatal in the text that counts as a part of a
story is the first one in v. 9 yada`ti. But we already knew that
narration in direct speech usually opens with a clause-initial qatal.
Actually, Rahab's little story in Josh 2 is advanced by the only two
wayyiqtols in the text, vannishma` and vayyimmas in v. 11.
> He also helpfully tabulates the results of Heller's 2004 work on Gen 37,
> 39-47, 2 Sam 9-20; 1 Kgs 1-2, the results of which, for the two verb
> forms referring to past actions, are:
>
> qatal: narrative = 137 times; narration 153 times.
> wayyiqtol: narrative = 1,103 times; narration 96 times.
>
>
The qatals in narration are probably almost all of two kinds. They may
be little one or two-clause utterances that cannot really be considered
stories. (Can an utterance of only one main clause be a story?) Or the
qatals are in dependent clauses that do not advance story time. In other
words, I doubt that either of Heller's qatals in narrative or narration
are narrating.
I guess I have to get a hold of Matthew's dissertation.
Shalom,
Bryan
> Note that I prefer not to treat weqatal as the same as qatal, even
> though I take it that they are the same verbal forms and not different.
> weqatal is used in cosubordinate clauses to carry the tense, aspect,
> mood, or illocutionary force of the preceding verb. Useful reading on
> this for BH is Winther-Nielsen 1995: 53-62, 270-277; Dallaire 2002;
> Diehl 2004; Baayen 1997; Talstra 1997 and Cristofaro 2003 for the
> typological background.
>
> Baayen, R. Harald. 1997. “The Pragmatics of the ‘Tenses’ in Biblical
> Hebrew.” Studies in Language 21: 245-285.
> Cristofaro, Sonia. 2003. Subordination. Oxford Studies in Typology and
> Linguistic Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
> Dallaire, Hélène. 2002. “The Syntax of Volitives in Northwest Semitic
> Prose.” PhD diss., Hebrew Union College.
> Diehl, Johannes F. 2004. Die Fortführung des Imperativs im Biblischen
> Hebräisch. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 286. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
> Heller, Roy L. 2004. Narrative Structure and Discourse Constellation: An
> Analysis of Clause Function in Biblical Hebrew Prose. Harvard Semitic
> Studies 55. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
> Talstra, Eep. 1997. “Tense, Mood, Aspect and Clause Connections in
> Biblical Hebrew: A Textual Approach.” Journal of Northwest Semitic
> Languages 23/2: 81-103.
> Winther-Nielsen, Nicolai. 1995. A Functional Discourse Grammar of
> Joshua: A Computer-Assisted Rhetorical Structure Analysis. Coniectanea
> Biblica Old Testament Series 40. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
>
> Regards,
> David Kummerow.
>
>
>
>>> Shalom David,
>>>
>>> Thank you very much for your clear and well-documented treatment of
>>> aspect in the recent thread!
>>>
>>> If I remember correctly, you said somewhere during the long thread
>>> that strings of qatals are sometimes used to narrate a story (forgive
>>> me if I do not quote you). If I am wrong, and I would be happy to
>>> drop the issue. Otherwise I confess that I am not familiar with this
>>> type of string in a narrative. I do realize that narratives in direct
>>> speech often begin with a qatal, but I am under the impression that
>>> they then continue with wayyiqtol.
>>>
>>> If I am remembering your statement correctly, can you point out a
>>> couple of these strings in "first Temple" texts?
>>> I have found, for example, 1 Sam 4:17 a string of four qatals in
>>> direct speech, but I don't think the speaker is telling a story. I
>>> think he is describing the state of affairs to Eli. Describing a
>>> state of affairs is essentially expository rather than narrative. In
>>> expository discourse I would expect to find noun sentences and X-qatal
>>> sentences (which are a kind of noun sentence, I think).
>>>
>>> I see that David uses a string of qatals (or weqatals) in 1 Sam
>>> 17:34-36. Traditionally, the string is considered to be repetitive
>>> action in the past for which weqatal is a conventional choice.
>>> However, In my book, I suggest that David is indeed telling a story
>>> (see _Learning BH_ pp. 345-347). However, I suggest he is telling a
>>> story in an unconventional way in a very special circumstance.
>>> Essentially, he is telling a story using the conventions of expository
>>> discourse in order to apply for a job. He is basically giving Saul
>>> his resume. I am not ashamed for bringing such a literary
>>> consideration into a linguistic discussion.
>>>
>>> Anyway, can you point out a string or two? Thanks!
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Bryan
>>>
>
>
B.M. Rocine
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13206
W: (315) 437-6744
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.