I think that the term "tense" is foreign to Hebrew, and is inherently
misleading. Hebrew does not have time indicators; there is no such
thing in Hebrew as ANIY <–AKAL, with a back-pointing arrow to
indicate past action, as opposed to ANIY AKAL–>, with a forward-
pointing arrow to indicate future action. As I see it, the Hebrew
verb is but a root supplanted by personal pronouns for the actors
involved in the act.
By a certain agreement, and by a certain agreement only, an aft
personal pronoun is used to indicate past action, as in say $ALAXTA =
$ALAX-TA, 'you have sent', while a fore personal pronoun is used to
indicate future action, as in TI$LAX = TI-$LAX, 'you will send'.
An English equivalent system would have been: banana eat-I for past
action, and banana I-eat for future action.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Dec 5, 2012, at 1:15 PM, Jerry Shepherd wrote:
I am, however, not convinced that the Hebrew verbal system is
tenseless.
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