the semantics of verbal pragmatics

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1、JournalofSemiticStudiesXLIX/2Autumn2004THESEMANTICSOFVERBALPRAGMATICS© TheUniversityofManchester2004.AllrightsreservedTHESEMANTICSOFVERBALPRAGMATICS:CLARIFYINGTHEROLESOFWAYYIQTOLANDWEQATALINBIBLICALHEBREWPROSE1JOHNA.COOKMADISON,WISCONSINAbstractTheparametersoftemporalsuccession(labell

2、edconsecutionorsequentiality)andforegroundinghavelongbeenassociatedwithwayyiqtolandweqatalinBiblicalHebrew.ManyrecentmodelsoftheBiblicalHebrewverbalsystemdistinguishthesetwowaw-prefixedformsfromqatalandyiqtol,respectively,basedontheparameteroftemporalsuccession,foregrounding,orboth.Un

3、fortunately,thesepa-rametersaregenerallypresentedasself-evidentconceptsandarethereforerarelydefinedwithsufficientprecisionnorinmanycasesevendistinguishedfromoneanother.Thisarticledistinguishesbe-tweentemporalsuccessionasasemanticpropertyofclausesandtheforeground-backgrounddistinctiona

4、sapsycholinguisticfeatureoftheprocessingandorganizingofdiscourse.Correlation,orlackthereof,betweeneachoftheseparametersandthewaw-prefixedverbformsinBiblicalHebrewisthenexamined.Thisarticleconcludesthatasemanticanalysisiscrucialtoexplainingcorrelationsbetweenverbformsanddiscoursefuncti

5、ons.1. IntroductionTheoriesoftheBiblicalHebrewverbalsystemmustallwrestlewiththecomplexissueofthesemanticanddiscourse-pragmaticrelation-shipsamongthefourprimaryverbforms.Amongthesefour,ithasbecomecommonplaceintheliteraturetodistinguishwayyiqtolfromqatalandlikewiseweqatalfromyiqtolwitht

6、heparameteroftempo-ralsuccession(alsotermedsequentiality)(Gropp1991;Endo1996;Hatav1997;Gentry1998;Goldfajn1998),orforegrounding(Tal-stra1992,Niccacci1990),orboth(Longacre1992,Buth1992).1 AversionofthispaperwasdeliveredintheLinguisticsandBiblicalHebrewsectionattheSBLannualmeetinginToro

7、nto,Canada,November25,2002.Iamgratefulforthefeedbackreceivedthere.247THESEMANTICSOFVERBALPRAGMATICSTheassociationoftemporalsuccessionwiththewaw-prefixedverbforms(traditionallycalledthewaw-consecutiveforms)canbetracedbacktothenineteenth-centuryconceptofconsecution,popularizedbyEwaldand

8、Drive