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

Book Series

Copyright

Bo Isaksson

Published On

2024-09-17

ISBN

Paperback978-1-80511-350-8
Hardback978-1-80511-351-5
PDF978-1-80511-352-2

Language

  • English

Print Length

749 pages (xviii+731)

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 38 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.5" x 9.21")
Hardback156 x 40 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.57" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback1036g (36.54oz)
Hardback1219g (43.00oz)

OCLC Number

1456571506

THEMA

  • CF
  • CFF
  • CFK
  • 2CSJ

BISAC

  • LAN006000
  • LAN009010
  • FOR011000

Keywords

  • consecutive tenses
  • Classical Hebrew
  • verbal system
  • clause linking
  • Semitic syntax
  • discourse continuity

The Verb in Classical Hebrew

The Linguistic Reality behind the Consecutive Tenses

The 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.

Contributors

Bo Isaksson

(author)
Professor Emeritus at Uppsala University

Bo Isaksson (PhD, Uppsala University 1987) is Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages at Uppsala University. His research concerns Classical Hebrew text linguistics and Arabic dialectology. In recent years he has initiated two international research projects on clause linking in Semitic languages which have generated the publications Clause Combining in Semitic (AKM 96, Harrassowitz 2015), Strategies of Clause Linking in Semitic Languages (AKM 93, Harrassowitz 2014), and Circumstantial Qualifiers in Semitic: The Case of Arabic and Hebrew (AKM 70, Harrassowitz 2009). These projects have formed the basis for the research presented in this book.