John is still experiencing difficulties posting. ________________________________ James Spinti E-mail marketing, Book Sales Division Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 35 years Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com Phone: 260-445-3118 Fax: 574-269-6788
Begin forwarded message: > From: "John A. Cook" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: b-hebrew Digest, Vol 120, Issue 21 > Date: December 13, 2012 12:58:09 PM CST > To: James Spinti <[email protected]> > > Rolf, > > Well this is slightly off topic, but let me respond briefly on the issue of > the Inf. Abs. in Phoenician: > > 1) There is some uncertainty as to whether we should call this an Inf. Abs., > which has arisen mainly on analogy with where BH uses the Inf. Abs. as a > stand in for a finite verb form, continuing the same sense of a leading verb; > I've long been intrigued (but how does one demonstrate the case?) with Gai's > claim (see reference below) that this is not an infinitive but a "serial > verb"—that is, a underspecified verb (N.B. the lack of person marking at the > least, if not lack of all TAM markings). > > Gai, Amikam > 1982 The Reduction of Tense (and Other Categories) of the Consequent Verb in > North-west Semitic. Orientalia 51: 254–56. > > 2) Regardless of whether Gai is followed, the form does appear to function as > serial verbs do in the handful of languages (mostly Africa and Southeast > Asia) occur: they are "underspecified" in some way and they are dependent on > a leading or ending finite form for their underspecified meanings. Note that > in v. 3 of Karatepe, the "narrative" begins with a perfect form and only then > continues with the apparent Inf. Abs. This sort of pattern has been argued > for BH, but it leads to all sorts of problems such as having to posit that > books beginning with wayyiqtol "assume" preceding material from which the TAM > of the form is derived. > > 3) Thus, if we try to make an analogy with Phoenician, we end up embracing > some sort of serial understanding of the wayyiqtol, which is a view that has > been around for over a century and never widely accepted. As I argue in my > 2004 JSS article > (http://ancienthebrewgrammar.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/cook_bhwayyiqtolweqatal_jss2004.pdf), > there is no evidence that wayyiqtol is underspecified in any way or is a > serial verb of any sort. > > 4) So, to clearly address your question: on the view that the Inf. Abs. (or > whatever the form) is a sort of serial verb form, we have a verb that does > not grammaticalize past tense but appears in narrative. However, it is > dependent on a leading form in order to maintain the past temporal location > of the narrative. Without this leading verb, how could we know that the text > is relating a past narrative as opposed to, say, a future prediction: > > I am Azitiwada, the blessed/vizier of Baal, servant of Baal whom Awarku king > of the Danunians made strong (PFV). Baal made me (PFV) a father and a mother > to the Danunians. I revived (INF ABS) the Danunians; I widened (INF ABS) the > land of the valley of Adana from the rising of the sun to its setting. (I ll. > 1-4). > > John > http://ancienthebrewgrammar.wordpress.com/ > > > On Dec 13, 2012, at 12:00 PM, [email protected] wrote: > >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 5 >> Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:28:40 +0100 >> From: "Rolf" <[email protected]> >> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Fwd: Re. re. More on verbs >> To: [email protected] >> Message-ID: <700b-50c9e600-11-7021630@222805160> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" >> >> Dear John, >> >> While I wait for your answer to the E-mail I posted this morning (local >> time), I have a question based on your comments below: In the 40 lines of >> the Phoenician Karatepe inscription, the verb form carrying the narrative >> forward is the infinitive absolute. There are 21 infinitive absolutes, 16 of >> which have a prefixed WAW, thus being syntactically similar to WAYYIQTOLs. >> Are these infinitive absolutes grammaticalized past tense, or can forms that >> have past reference but are not grammatcalized past tense be used as >> narrative forms in Semitic langauges? >> >> >> >> Best regards, >> >> >> Rolf Furuli >> Stavern >> Norway >> >
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