http://www.hermesac.no/Awatu_Publishing.pdf
Awatu Publishers
Øvre Smestadvei 47B
0378 Oslo
Norway
A New Understanding of the Verbal System of Classical Hebrew An Attempt to Distinguish Between Semantic and Pragmatic Factors
Rolf J. Furuli
The book is based on the author’s doctoral dissertation and has the following outline:
For the first time all the 79,574 finite and infinite verbs the Tanakh, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ben Sira, and the Inscriptions have been analyzed in the same study. The description of the Hebrew verbal system in this study is completely new and different from any previous descriptions, both regarding the nature of each conjugation and the definition of the different forms.
In the chapters of the book, 2,106 Hebrew passages with 4,261 verbs (1,402 wayyiqtols, 887 yiqtols, 78 weyiqtols, 769 qatals, 315 weqatals, 280 infinitives, and 530 participles) have been discussed and analyzed. This is 7.4 percent of
all finite and infinite verbs that function as predicates in the Tanakh.
The analysis of all these verb forms reveals that yiqtol, wayyiqtol, weyiqtol, qatal, and weqatal can have past, present, and future reference. Thus, a strong case is made against the view that tense is grammaticalized in classical Hebrew. As for aspect, the data show that each of the mentioned finite verb forms can signal incomplete and complete(d) actions. So a strong case can also be made against
the view that the Hebrew conjugations represent aspects in the traditional definition of the word (exemplified by English aspects).
This book represents a new approach to the study of the verbal system of classical Hebrew.
[The above is an excerpt. For summaries of each chapter, click on the link at the top of this message.]
Marjorie
