Temporal Structure in the Biblical Hebrew Verb: A Case Study of Lexical Aspect in the Verb ידע (original) (raw)
A Reconsideration of Semantic Labeling for Hebrew Verbs: Interaction between Grammatical Aspect and Lexical Aspect This paper will reconsider the traditional semantic labeling for Biblical Hebrew (BH) verbs. Most BH grammars list the semantic functions of the Hebrew verb according to its morphological forms: e.g., qatal as perfect, yiqtol as imperfect, wayyiqtol as past. Even though such a simple description is beneficial for beginners, advanced students encounter the fact that one form may express various meanings. In fact, many intermediate grammars list a number of possible meanings per a morphological form: e.g., qatal may express present or past state, simple past, past perfect, present perfect, performative, or future perfect. Students needs to choose one meaning from those lists, considering its context, which may be resulted in ambiguity. In order to provide a better presentation on the semantic labeling of Hebrew verbs, I call attention to the significance of lexical aspect, which is also known as situation aspect. I adopt formal semantics, which is often associated with Richard Montague and his three papers, “English as Formal Language” (1970), “Universal Grammar” (1970), and “The Proper Quantification in Ordinary Grammar” (1973). One of the basic principles of the approach is to understand linguistic meaning by constructing precise mathematical models of the principle. Especially, both syntax and semantics are regarded as an algebra, and there is a homeomorphism mapping elements of the syntactic algebra onto elements of the semantic algebra.(Barbara Partee 2016). In terms of verbal system, it is assumed that verbs and predicates headed by verbs denote sets of events, in which tense gives the temporal location of the events denoted by the verbal predicate and in which aspectual categories reflect the internal temporal structure of the events. Furthermore, the internal temporal structure of the events is determined by three aspectual categories: grammatical aspect, lexical aspect, and telicity (Susan Rothstein 2016). Put differently, tense and these three aspectual categories must be considered in determining the meaning of verbs. Nevertheless, traditional BH grammars have tried to define it only by tense and/or grammatical (or viewpoint) aspect. As an example, this paper analyzes so-called stative verbs, qatil or qatul type verbs, to indicate how we can define the meaning of verbs according to the formal semantic approach. Then, I will conclude that both grammatical aspect and lexical aspect of verbs need to be analyzed to determine the temporal value in BH predicates.