The relevance of tense and aspect in Semitic Languages: The case of Hebrew and Arabic

Author(s):  
Sven-Olof Dahlgren
2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vit Bubenik

Development of Aspect and Tense in Semitic Languages: Typological ConsiderationsA survey of pertinent literature reveals that many studies of aspect in Semitic languages do not pay a due attention to the crucial theoretical distinction of perfect and perfectivity. In this paper I will adopt the ‘chronogenetic' model of the morphosyntactic development of tense and aspect tested for the Indo-European languages (Hewson & Bubenik 1997) that allows five major aspectual categories to be distinguished (prospective, inceptive, imperfective, perfective, perfect) within ‘Event Time’. I will argue that the appearance in Arabic of the analytic double-finite perfect (of the typekun-tu katab-tu‘I had written’) was the most significant innovation during the New Stage not to be found in the other Central Semitic languages. During the Middle Stage in Mishnaic Hebrew and Middle Aramaic the canonical progressive aspect was paradigmatized while Classical Arabic created its double-finite counterpart (kān-a ya-ktub-u‘he was writing’). The significance of this approach to the study of the universals of tense and aspect will be evaluated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 27-79
Author(s):  
Marc Brose

“Perfective and Imperfective Participle”: This article deals with the basic semantic opposition of the two types of Egyptian participles, jri̯ and jrr. After an extended overview of the history of research presenting the classical approaches of K. Sethe and A. H. Gardiner, who both used established terms of models of tense and aspect, and also the advanced approaches of W. Schenkel, J. P. Allen, K. Jansen-Winkeln and E. Oreál, who introduced new concepts and terminolgy and so tried to overcome the classical approaches, it is nevertheless shown that the classification of the opposition as “perfective–imperfective”, with modernized definitions in contrast to Gardiner’s, suffices to explain the entire functional range of the two types and that the advanced approaches are not necessary.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-33
Author(s):  
Alexander Andrason ◽  
Bonsam Koo

AbstractThe present paper discusses the issue of Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) in Biblical Aramaic within the dynamic grammaticalization-based model of verbal serialization – a recent modification of a prototype-driven approach to SVCs used in linguistic typology. Having analyzed the entire corpus of Biblical Aramaic, the authors conclude the following: (a) verbal serialization constitutes an integral part of the verbal system of Biblical Aramaic; (b) pre-canonical SVCs are more common that canonical SVCs, and no cases of post-canonicity are attested; (c) Biblical Aramaic is a semi-advanced serializing language. Overall, the research corroborates the tendency of Semitic languages to gradually increase their serializing profile; a tendency that is often – albeit not without exception – correlated with the languages’ relative chronology.


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