Table Of Content

THE BIBLICAL HEBREW VERBAL SYSTEM: A GRAMMATICALIZATION APPROACH by John A. Cook A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Hebrew and Semitic Studies) at the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON 2002 © Copyright by John A. Cook 2002 All Rights Reserved i THE BIBLICAL HEBREW VERBAL SYSTEM: A GRAMMATICALIZATION APPROACH John A. Cook Under the supervision of Associate Professor Cynthia L. Miller At the University of Wisconsin-Madison This study offers a semantic analysis of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system with respect to the parameters of tense, aspect, and modality. As linguistic understanding of these universal categories increases, the way is opened up to reevaluate past work on the Biblical Hebrew verb, and to make new discoveries about the system. In particular, recent studies on the grammaticalization of tense, aspect, and modality in the world’s languages (especially Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca 1994) provide the linguistic basis for the present study. The first two chapters place the current work in context and clarify the issues involved in a semantic analysis of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system. The first chapter surveys recent advances in the linguistic study of the universal categories of tense, aspect, and modality. It focuses particularly on the development and exploitation of Reichenbach’s concept of a reference point in tense and tense-aspect theories. The second chapter surveys twentieth-century studies of the Semitic and Biblical Hebrew verbal systems, and concludes with a survey of recent multi- parameter studies. It critiques the strengths and weaknesses of tense, aspectual, modal, and discourse approaches to the Biblical Hebrew verbal system. Chapter three presents a new semantic model of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system based on a grammaticalization approach. The verbal system is analyzed from both the perspective of its historical development and the semantic breadth of individual forms in the Hebrew Bible. The model recognizes semantic overlap between the forms in the verbal system, and explains the overlaps in terms of the grammaticalization of the forms. Finally, chapter four addresses the often confused phenomena of the movement of time in ii discourse (i.e., temporal succession) and the psycholinguistic concept of foreground. The chapter defines and distinguishes between temporal succession and foreground and examines the degree of correlation between each of these two parameters and the Biblical Hebrew waw- prefixed forms (wayyiqtol and weqatal). In the course of the analysis, claims concerning the role of these forms in different types of discourse is critiqued. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a privilege at the end of a project to acknowledge those who have contributed to the preparation, inspiration, undertaking, and completion of the task. My thanks go to my professors, Drs. Cynthia L. Miller, Michael V. Fox, and Ronald L. Troxel under whose tutelage I have learned so much. I want to especially thank my advisor, Dr. Cynthia L. Miller. I entered the Hebrew and Semitic Studies program desiring to work in linguistics and Biblical Hebrew, and I consider it providential that a year after I began my program she took her position here at the University of Wisconsin. The success of this thesis is in large part due to her sage advice and listening ear from the beginning to the end of the process. I only hope that my work will complement and augment her already well established reputation in linguistics and Biblical Hebrew. I also want to thank Robert D. Holmstedt for his largely unseen contribution to this project. Our endless hours studying together for tests, preparing for preliminary exams, giving each other feedback on our written work and informal ideas aptly illustrates the adage, “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the wit of his friend,” as well as the truth that a little competition never hurts. I look forward to many more years of sharpening and being sharpened by my friend and collegue. My deepest thanks go to Kathy, my wife, and my four boys, Jared, Colin, Tage, and Evan. Kathy has been a constant encouragement and has rendered to me inestimatible help by letting me chatter on to her about tense, aspect, modality, and Biblical Hebrew. My four sons have been my greatest fans, counting the days till the completion of “the book,” and providing time and again a welcome distraction from the conundrums of this project. Finally, I am thankful for a university dissertator fellowship, which has enabled me to give my full attention to the last details of the thesis and see it to successful completion. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii Figures and Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii Abbreviations and Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi 1 LINGUISTIC DISCUSSION OF TENSE, ASPECT AND MODALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 BACKGROUND 1 1.2 TENSE THEORIES 4 1.2.1 Prelude to the R-point 4 1.2.2 Creation of the R-point 7 1.2.3 Revisions of the R-point 11 1.2.3.1 Norbert Hornstein 11 1.2.3.2 William Bull 13 1.2.3.3 Bernard Comrie 15 1.2.3.4 Renaat Declerk 17 1.2.4 Summary 20 1.3 ASPECT 21 1.3.1 Viewpoint Aspect 22 1.3.2 Situation Aspect 24 1.3.3 Phasal Aspect 28 1.4 TENSE-ASPECT REVISIONS OF THE R-POINT 30 1.4.1 Marion R. Johnson 31 1.4.2 Wolfgang Klein 33 1.4.3 Mari Broman Olsen 36 1.4.4 Summary 39 1.5 INTERACTION BETWEEN CATEGORIES OF TENSE AND ASPECT 40 1.5.1 Theoretical Contributions 40 1.5.2 Empirical Contributions 45 1.5.2.1 Östen Dahl 45 1.5.2.2 Joan Bybee, Revere Perkins, and William Pagliuca 47 1.5.2.3 D. N. S. Bhat 49 1.5.3 Summary 51 1.6 TENSE AND ASPECT IN DISCOURSE 52 1.6.1 Discourse-Pragmatic Explanations for TAM Choice 53 1.6.2 Semantic Theories of Discourse Movement 58 1.6.3 Summary 63 1.7 MODALITY 64 1.7.1 Definition 64 1.7.2 Types of Modality 65 1.7.2.1 Deontic Modality 67 1.7.2.2 Epistemic Modality 68 v 1.7.2.3 Oblique Modality 70 1.7.2.4 Realis versus Irrealis 71 1.7.3 Modality and Future Tense 72 1.7.4 Summary 73 2 DISCUSSION OF TENSE, ASPECT, AND MODALITY IN THE BHVS . . . . . . . . . . 74 2.1 THE SEMANTIC PROBLEMS WITH THE BHVS 74 2.2 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ‘STANDARD’ THEORY 79 2.2.1 Before Heinrich Ewald and Samuel R. Driver 79 2.2.2 Heinrich Ewald’s ‘Standard’ Theory 82 2.2.3 Samuel R. Driver’s ‘Extended Standard’ Theory 89 2.2.4 Summary 92 2.3 CONTRIBUTIONS OF HISTORICAL-COMPARATIVE STUDIES 93 2.3.1 The Relationship between East and West Semitic 94 2.3.2 The Canaanite Verb in the Amarna Letters 100 2.3.3 The Ugaritic Verbal System 105 2.3.4 Other Semitic and Afroasiatic Languages 106 2.3.5 Summary 107 2.4 TENSE THEORIES OF THE BHVS 109 2.4.1 Frank R. Blake, James A. Hughes, and O. L. Barnes 110 2.4.2 Jerzy K. Kury5lowicz 111 2.4.3 Joshua Blau, M. H. Silverman, and E. J. Revell 115 2.4.4 Ziony Zevit 117 2.4.5 Brian Peckham 118 2.4.6 Summary 120 2.5 ASPECTUAL THEORIES OF THE BHVS 121 2.5.1 Marcel Cohen 122 2.5.2 Carl Brockelmann 123 2.5.3 Rudolf Meyer 124 2.5.4 Frithiof Rundgren 125 2.5.5 Diethelm Michel, Péter Kustár, and Bo Johnson 127 2.5.6 Summary 131 2.6 DISCOURSE APPROACHES TO THE BHVS 132 2.6.1 Robert E. Longacre 133 2.6.2 Weinrich-Schneider Approach 136 2.6.2.1 Eep Talstra 138 2.6.2.2 Alviero Niccacci 139 2.6.4 Summary 142 2.7 RECENT MULTI-PARAMETER THEORIES 144 2.7.1 Modality-plus Theories 144 2.7.1.1 Antonio Loprieno and Susan Rattray 144 2.7.1.2 Jan Joosten 146 2.7.1.3 Vincent DeCaen 149 vi 2.7.1.4 Ronald S. Hendel 150 2.7.2 Sequentiality-plus Theories 152 2.7.2.1 Douglas M. Gropp 152 2.7.2.2 Randall Buth 154 2.7.2.3 Yoshinobu Endo 155 2.7.2.4 Peter Gentry 157 2.7.2.5 Galia Hatav 158 2.7.2.6 Tal Goldfajn 160 2.7.3 Summary 161 3 A THEORY OF TENSE, ASPECT, AND MODALITY IN BH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 3.1 A UNIVERSAL EVENT MODEL 163 3.1.1 The Basic Event Model 164 3.1.2 Situation Aspect and the Event Model 165 3.1.2.1 A Privative Oppositional Model 166 3.1.2.2 The Subinterval Property, (A)telicity, and Dynamicity 168 3.1.2.3 Situation Aspect and the Event Model 171 3.1.3 Viewpoint Aspect and the Event Model 173 3.1.3.1 The Perfective : Imperfective Opposition 174 3.1.3.2 Viewpoint Aspect, Situation Aspect, and (Un)boundedness 176 3.1.3.3 The Perfect and Progressive 180 3.1.4 Phasal Aspect and the Event Model 182 3.1.5 Tense and the Event Model 184 3.1.6 Modality 186 3.1.7 Summary 188 3.2 A GRAMMATICALIZATION APPROACH 189 3.2.1 Synchrony, Diachrony, and Panchrony 191 3.2.2 A Grammaticalization Approach to Form-Meaning Asymmetries 194 3.2.3 Grammaticalization and Basic Meaning 198 3.3 A SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF THE BHVS 200 3.3.1 Stative and Dynamic in BH 201 3.3.2 BH as Aspect-Prominent 203 3.3.3 Qatal (including Weqatal) 206 3.3.3.1 Grammaticalization of Qatal 209 3.3.3.2 Indicative Meanings of Perfective Qatal 219 3.3.3.3 Modal Meanings of Perfective Qatal 223 3.3.4 Yiqtol, Wayyiqtol, and Deontics 232 3.3.4.1 Grammaticalization of Yiqtol 237 3.3.4.2 Imperfective Yiqtol 246 3.3.4.3 Jussive and the Deontic System 251 3.3.4.4 Past Tense Wayyiqtol 253 3.3.5 Qotel 262 3.4 CONCLUSIONS 268 vii 3.4.1 Grammaticalization of the Hebrew Verb 269 3.4.2 Semantics of the BHVS 270 EXCURSUS: WORD ORDER IN BH 272 4 THE SEMANTICS OF DISCOURSE-PRAGMATICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 4.1 THE PROBLEMS WITH DISCOURSE APPROACHES TO VERBS 275 4.2 SOME ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE STRUCTURE 279 4.2.1 Temporal Succession 280 4.2.2 Foreground-Background 285 4.2.3 The Relationship between Temporal Succession and Foreground 289 4.3 THE SEMANTICS OF DISCOURSE IN BH 292 4.3.1 Wayyiqtol in Narrative Discourse 293 4.3.1.1 Wayyiqtol and Temporal Succession 293 4.3.1.2 Wayyiqtol and Foreground 298 4.3.2 Weqatal and Non-Narrative Discourse 300 4.3.3 Summary 306 5 SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315