Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Publications

The Distribution of Verbal Forms in Biblical Aramaic

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2007

Journal Title

Journal of Semitic Studies

Volume

52

Issue

2

First Page

227

Last Page

242

Abstract

The standard grammars for Biblical Aramaic treat the verb primarily in terms of tense and Aktionsart. The theory of H.B. Rosen, which is based on a distinction between point aspect verbs and linear aspect verbs, constitutes the one significant alternative to the standard view. The present article interacts with these two proposals and suggests a new approach — distributional analysis. Such analysis has been applied with great success in Hebrew studies, but not in research on the verb in Biblical Aramaic. The thesis here is that Biblical Aramaic has a primary verbal form for narrative (qctal) and a primary verbal form for discourse (yiqtul).

Keywords

Biblical studies, Daniel, Aramaic

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