‘Verbal Aspect’ and ‘Tense’ in the Hebrew Verbal System (Part IV-2): Thoughts by an Eighty-Year-Old Man

Abstract

In this last section of the study, the author goes on to the study of the problems raised by the conjugation of the II-infirmae verbs. The fundamental laws of working of these verbs are remembered, where the L(ong) F(orm) of the P(refix) C(onjugation) is characterized by the presence of a long vowel /u/ or /i/, marked habitually by the matres lectionis /w/ or /y/. Insistence is laid on the fact that, contrary to the conclusion arrived at in the precedent article (MEAH/H 62 [2013] pp.189-225) that the presence of an apparent LF of the PC might be documented in constructions of the wayyiqtol type (the [wayyibnæh] model) with a clear perfective meaning, in the case of the II-inf. verbs the presence of the mater lectionis is regularly a sign indicating that we are faced with the LF. The apparent anomalous cases could be explained perhaps through the analogy with the so called «successive imperfect» of the (NT) Greek. In this light the constructions are analyzed, in which the adverb ['åz] is documented followed by a verb in the LF of the PC (alternatively, in qatal). And also the wayyiqtol forms with a nun paragogicum (the [wayyiqṭelûn] model) and some case in which the ketib of the Massoretic Text and the qere of the Massoretes are in struggle, as it can be observed in 2 Sam 13,8.