Dear George,

I have the following comments regarding the jussive:

In the linguistic literature we often find the acronym TAM, which refers to 
tense, aspect, and mood. These are three completely different categories; two 
of them (tense and aspect) refer to this world, and one (mood) refers to 
imagined worlds. 

Waltke/O'Connor suggests that we distinguish between jussive form and jussive 
sense. This is fine, but I would prefer "modal" or "modality" instead of 
"jussive sense." The jussive form is an apocopated YIQTOL. I analyze 5,117 of 
the 13, 619 YIQTOLs in the Tanakh as modal. Of these modal YIQTOLs, I found 
only 298 apocopated forms. I also found 102 apocopated WEYIQTOLs. In addition, 
I found 274 YIQTOLs and 250 WEYIQTOLs with cohortative endings. Only a few 
YIQTOLs can be apocopated. Nevertheless, the small number of apocopated forms 
indicate that the nature of these forms are not clear. Enhancing this, is the 
fact that many YIQTOLs that could have been apocopated are long. For example, 
after the negation L) I found 11 examples of apocopated YIQTOLs, and after the 
598 cases of the negation )L I found 7 with cohortative endings and 123 
apocopated forms; 30 YIQTOLs that could have been apocopated were long. So the 
picture is inconsistent, and we do not know whether apocopation in 
 these forms are semantic of pragmatic.

Of the 3,919 WAYYIQTOLs of hollow verbs, lamed he verbs, and hiphils, I found 
that 416 (10.6%) were long and 3.503 (89.4%) were apocopated. Only the 
apocopation of the lamed he verbs (with a few additions) can be seen in 
unpointed texts. The question is whether the deletion of the final he in lamed 
he verbs is because of the stress pattern of WAYYIQTOLs, thus being pragmatic, 
or, whether WAYYIQTOL is an independent conjugation that in some way is 
connected with short forms. There is no way to know the answer, and the 416 
examples of long WAYYIQTOLs question whether the form is connected with short 
forms.

I do not know what you build on when you say that WAYYIQTOL is derived from the 
jussive. I am not aware of any data from the Tanakh or from cognate languages 
which would suggest such a connection. I analyze 111 WAYYIQTOLs as modal. I 
addition, of the 632 first-person singular WAYYIQTOLS, 101 have cohortative 
endings. How shall we explain these forms?  I would also add that all the 
finite and infinite forms can be modal. I have found: 5,117 YIQTOLs, 111 
WAYYIQTOLs, 784 WEYIQTOLs, 394 QATALs, 1,258 WEQATALs, 74 active participles, 
77 passive participles, 71 infinitive constructs, and 76 infinitive absolutes 
with modal meaning. So modality is not restricted to one form.



Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway






 
 
Mandag 27. Mai 2013 09:54 CEST skrev George Athas <[email protected]>: 
 
> Rolf,
> 
> Yes, we do disagree on the wayyiqtol and the yiqtol verb. I'm convinced that 
> they are, in fact, two distinct verb forms, as can be observed by the 
> so-called apocopated form. Can you briefly explain your view of the form and 
> meaning of the jussive?
> 
> 
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Dean of Research,
> Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
> Sydney, Australia
> 
> 
 
 

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