I'm happy to rephrase my main conclusion so as not to get tangled in arguments over the meaning of the word "tense":
(1) In a language with a past tense verb form, it is possible for there to be linguistic contexts in which this form is not used with past reference; indeed, this form may have other "semantic meanings" which do not primarily express time.
If this is not the case, please explain how, in my example, the reference time for "walked" is in the past with respect to the deictic centre. (Does this then have implications for a theory of "uncancellable meaning" in the English simple past conjugation?)
My question, then, was to what extent you might have considered that WAYYIQTOL (or any other verbal conjugation, for that matter) might have multiple, mutually exclusive meanings: principally as a past tense, but possibly with quite different meaning(s) in other grammatical contexts, as with English -ed.
Thank you for explaining your methodology further ... though I was left a little uncertain of the answer. One of your initial assumptions seems to be that a given verb form must have uniform temporal reference to qualify as a tense. I have tried to demonstrate that this is not the case - especially when, as in the case of English -ed, the vast majority of instances do have the same temporal reference.
On the other hand, you indicated that you did consider that non-past WAYYIQTOLs could be explained as "exceptions" (for pragmatic or diachronic/grammaticalization reasons). I would have to read your thesis to assess this properly.
Given that this conversation seems to have centred on my English example and theoretical presuppositions rather than on BH per se, I'm happy to leave it there. I still have no idea whether this has any impact on WAYYIQTOL! (Though I suspect it does in the case of YIQTOL.) I've expressed my argument as clearly as I can, and if you still reject my conclusions, I guess we'll agree to disagree.
Regards,
Stephen Shead
Centro de Estudios Pastorales
Santiago, Chile
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.