The Verb in Classical Hebrew: The Linguistic Reality behind the Consecutive Tenses

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dc.contributor.authorIsaksson, Bo
dc.date.accessioned2024-10-07T04:45:53Z
dc.date.available2024-10-07T04:45:53Z
dc.date.issued2024-09-17
dc.date.updated2024-10-07T04:45:49Z
dc.descriptionPublication status: ACTIVE
dc.description.abstractThe consecutive tenses are fundamental in all descriptions of Classical Hebrew grammar. They are even basic to the textbooks on Biblical Hebrew. Being fundamental in the verbal system, and part of any beginner’s grammar, they pose a serious problem to a linguistic understanding of the verbal system, since grammars describe an alternation of ‘forms’ or ‘tenses’ in double pairs: wayyiqṭol alternates with its ‘equivalent’ qaṭal, and wə-qaṭal alternates with its ‘equivalent’ yiqṭol. This ‘enigma’ in the verbal system is handled in the book by recognising that the alternation of the consecutive tenses with other tenses, in the reality of the text, represents a linking of clauses. The ‘consecutive tenses’ are clause-types with a natural language connective wa- directly followed by a finite verbal morpheme, a type of clause that expressed continuity in the earliest stage of Semitic. The commonly held assumption that there is a special ‘consecutive waw’ is unwarranted. The use of the ‘consecutive’ clause-types in order to express discourse continuity indicates that Classical Hebrew has retained the old unmarked declarative word order of Semitic syntax. Seen in the light of recent research on the Tiberian reading tradition, the ‘consecutive’ wayyiqṭol can be analysed as a retention of the old Semitic past perfective *wa-yaqtul, which was pronounced wa-yiqṭol in Classical Hebrew. The ‘consecutive’ wə-qāṭal (pronounced wa-qaṭal in the classical language) constitutes the result of an internal Hebrew development into a construction (in the sense of Joan Bybee) already foreshadowed in the earliest Northwest Semitic languages. The book understands the ‘consecutive tenses’ as discourse continuity clauses, which typically form chains of main line clauses. Such chains can be interrupted by other types of clauses. This interruption is a clause linking that receives special attention in the interpretation of the Classical Hebrew verbal system. Chapter six presents a regenerated text linguistics founded on the new terminology. A clause linking approach is the central methodological procedure in this book. To this must be added diachronic typology in a comparative Semitic setting. The linguistic examples of clause linking are gathered from a large Classical Hebrew corpus, the Pentateuch and the Book of Judges, and made searchable in a database of 6559 non-archaic text records.
dc.description.versionVoR
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0414
dc.identifier.isbn9781805113508
dc.identifier.isbn9781805113515
dc.identifier.isbn9781805113522
dc.identifier.otherc37a3a54-9b4a-42f1-af89-2d0dc43c6604
dc.identifier.urihttps://thoth-arch.lib.cam.ac.uk/handle/1811/806
dc.languageENG
dc.publisherOpen Book Publishers
dc.rightsEmbargo: none
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.subjectFOR011000
dc.subjectLAN006000
dc.subjectLAN009010
dc.subject2CSJ
dc.subjectCF
dc.subjectCFF
dc.subjectCFK
dc.subjectCambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
dc.subjectLinguistics
dc.subjectClassical Hebrew
dc.subjectclause linking
dc.subjectconsecutive tenses
dc.subjectdiscourse continuity
dc.subjectSemitic syntax
dc.subjectverbal system
dc.titleThe Verb in Classical Hebrew: The Linguistic Reality behind the Consecutive Tenses
dc.typehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2f33

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