Verbal Semantics
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"If we do not care to take the verbal forms seriously, we run the risk of missing the dynamic and precise intention of many Psalms and other poetic materials."
(Alviero Niccacci, "The Biblical Hebrew Verbal System in Poetry," in Biblical Hebrew in Its Northwest Semitic Setting: Typological and Historical Perspectives [Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006], 225 n. 16)
Key Concepts
This visualisation focuses on the relationship between verbs and time:
- Tense: a situation’s location in time (past, present, future, timeless)
- Situation aspect: a situation’s inherent characteristics (+/-dynamicity, +/-telicity, and +/-durativity).
- Reference point movement: subset of Discourse Mode, specifically whether or not the reference point in this discourse is updated after a situation
These are important categories for interpretation and translation, and how one analyses a verb can have a significant effect on how it is rendered. For example, notice how differently this selection of English versions translates the same verbs in Ps 3:8:
- הִכִּ֣יתָ אֶת־כָּל־אֹיְבַ֣י לֶ֑חִי // שִׁנֵּ֖י רְשָׁעִ֣ים שִׁבַּֽרְתָּ׃
- You strike . . . You shatter . . . (ESV, GNT)
- You have struck . . . You have shattered . . . (KJV, NASB)
- Strike . . . ! Shatter . . . ! (NIV, NLT, CEB)
- You will strike . . . You will shatter . . . (NET)
The conventional analytical categories for verbal semantics are tense, aspect, and situation type, so the final category here (reference point movement) is exploratory.
Steps
- Split the Hebrew text into lines according to verbal instances.
- Colour-code the verbs according to morphology.
- Identify situation type.
- Determine expected temporal movement.
- Determine tense for each discourse section.
1. Lay out the Hebrew text
Copy the table from the template board and lay out the Hebrew text in the second column (one clause per verb, whether finite, infinitive or participial). Use OSHB for the Hebrew text.
Indent syntactic subordination and direct speech.
Note that participles often do not have tense, but they still have situation aspect. We are not assuming that every verb form has tense. (Some finite forms do not have tense, either).
2. Morphology
According to the template, change the background of every yiqtol to pink and the background of every qatal to blue. Then colour-code every verb (including volitive, wayyiqtol, participles, etc.) according to the template.
Note that qatal and yiqtol are treated differently from the others, because they have a greater effect on the tense and aspect values of the larger discourse, compared to the other forms. The colouring is intended to expose naturally occurring patterns in the Hebrew. It is also immediately apparent when non-modal yiqtol and qatal are not used.
3. Situation Type
Lexical aspect refers to inherent features of a verb in isolation. Situation type takes the entire verb phrase (i.e. situation) into account. Whereas 'the plane flies' is atelic (has no natural endpoint), 'the plane flies to London' is telic (has a natural endpoint). Situation type takes account of the effect of direct objects, plurality, negation, etc. It is more useful for assessing a given instance of a verb, whereas lexical aspect is more useful for an abstract understanding of a verb. Our interest here is the actual usage.
Dynamicity: state versus event. An event is a situation in which something changes (“happens”), whereas a state is a situation in which nothing changes (“happens”). A test which may be helpful in determining whether a situation is a state or event asks, What changed? Only events can coherently answer this question.
Examples:
- She loves running. (state, in which nothing changes)
- She went running. (event: she was not running and then she was running)
- Ben knows that Dallas is not the capital of Texas. (state, in which nothing changes)
- Ben learns that Dallas is not the capital of Texas. (event: first he did not know, then he did)
Telicity: telic versus atelic. An event is telic if it has a natural endpoint, and atelic if it does not have a natural endpoint. A useful test for telicity is if an event can happen 'in' a bounded time period.
Examples:
- She runs in three hours. (atelic: the event will start in three hours, not happen within the three hours)
- She runs the course in three hours. (telic: the running happens within the three hours)
Durativity: durative versus punctiliar event. This distinction asks if the situation starts and stops. A durative situation extends over time (includes states, resultant states, and continuous action). E.g., She was swimming. A punctual situation is presented as happening instantaneously (includes repetitive actions). E.g., He kicked the ball (single), or He was kicking the ball (repetitive). Use a blue background box for durative situations, and a pink background box for punctual situations. A useful test for durativity is if an event can happen 'for' a bounded time period. A durative event will span the time period, whereas a punctual event will be interpreted as repeating (habitual, repetitive or iterative aspect).
Examples:
- She runs for three hours. (durative: the event spans the time period)
- She sneezes for three hours. (punctual: the event has to be repeated in order to span the time period)
Based on the presence or absence of these properties (dynamicity, telicity, durativity), identify each situation according to type: state, activity, accomplishment, achievement, semelfactive. Place the corresponding iconic figure (available on the templates page), coloured according to morphology, in the next column of the chart. (At this point, ignore the Fut/Present/Past labels. They only apply when there are dividing tense lines.)
4. Expected movement of the reference point
This is the least familiar feature. It is not a feature of a verb or even a clause, but a feature of a span of text. This is very important.
The question is: has the expected reference point in the text 'changed' after a clause? In a typical story, the reference point changes after every event but does not change after every state. The expected movement of the reference point is indicated in parentheses, with an ellipsis for when the expectation is not met:
- 'He got up (and then) saddled his donkey (and then)
- rode to Jericho (and then).
- Meanwhile, it was hot (and at the same time)
- everybody wished for rain (and at the same time).
- He sold his goods (and then)
- returned home (and then).'
For each situation that naturally is followed by '(and then)', the reference point has moved. These are marked with blue background.
For each situation that naturally is followed by '(and at the same time)', the reference point has not moved. These are marked with pink background.
This simple diagram shows the most basic axes and how the reference point dictates that translation into English. Hebrew is happy to convey the semantics the same, whether or not the reference point moves, but English (and many other languages) require a form that includes in it the expectation of reference point movement. Once this is recognised, and we can identify whether or not there is expected movement, it makes translation much simpler.
5. Tense
Absolute “tense” refers to the situation’s location in time: past, present, future, or timeless. The topic time is determined by context, not verbal morphology alone.
Hebrew has a combination of absolute tense and relative tense. Precisely because the tenses are mostly relative, it is vital to know what the reference point is -- what reference point the relative tense is relative to.
Relative tense is indicated by the physical placement of the iconic figure in the table.
Tense is not, however, always a prominent feature. When tense is not most prominent, there should be no lines between the future/present/past. (An improved diagram might make this even clearer!)
When tense is present, the iconic figures are placed in the relevant columns. A simple past and a past perfect are diagrammed identically at first, since the action is the same, but a dashed line is added to the perfect to indicate the ongoing relevance or stative quality that extends into the present.
6. Modality
Imperatives and jussives are modal by morphology. We-qatal and we-yiqtol are often modal. Clause-initial yiqtol, if in an a-line, should be presumed modal unless proven otherwise.
7. Translation
Translation is a combination of morphology, reference point movement, and tense. This table provides a sample of model renderings, though without fully taking into account relative tense.
In the Verbal Semantics chart, include an Elaborative Paraphrase that makes as explicit as possible the verbal semantics. Exaggerated forms are acceptable for the sake of clarity.
On the grammatical diagram, update the verbal glosses to those intended for the CBC.
8. Prepare for Live Review
Submit your draft for written review.
After completing a full draft according to the guidelines above, find your visualisation's "task" in ClickUp and update its status to "under review." Assign the task to the layer overseer, who will provide written review notes on Miro. Note: you may also create a ClickUp “subtask” for review, and assign the subtask to the layer overseer. Either way, make sure to update the main task status to “under review.”
Make revisions.
Based on the written feedback provided on Miro by the layer overseer on Miro, revise your draft and complete any remaining research needed. Update the ClickUp task to reflect its status (as in #1 above). More than one round of revisions may be necessary. The visualisation should be as polished as possible (content and formatting) before its Live Review.
Identify issues that need Live Review.
After revising your draft in dialogue with the layer overseer, list any remaining questions or issues that require group expertise or discussion. Important: this short list should be limited to issues that you and the layer overseer were unable to resolve. Before the Live Review, type these questions in a Miro text box (titled "Live Review Issues" above the visualisation to be reviewed. This will help ensure that the Live Review effectively addresses the most important issues.
Attend Live Review.
The goal of the Live Review is to make any remaining revisions and approve the visualisation(s). If the group determines that further work is needed, then this should be done in dialogue with the layer overseer.
9. Revise and send for final checks.
Make final revisions.
After the Live Review, make any remaining revisions as promptly as possible. Contact the layer overseer if you have questions.
Send for final checks.
In ClickUp, change the task status to “ready for final checks.” Make sure to assign the task to the layer overseer, so that they are notified. The layer overseer will take care of final checks and publication.
Bibliography
Cook, John. “Actionality (Aktionsart): Pre-Modern Hebrew.” In Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics. Edited by Geoffrey Khan. Consulted online on 22 September 2021 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2212-4241_ehll_EHLL_COM_00000203>.
Fleischman, Suzanne. Tense and Narrativity: From Medieval Performance to Modern Fiction. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010. PDF here.
Gentry, Peter. “The System of the Finite Verb in Classical Biblical Hebrew.” Hebrew Studies 39 (1998): 7–39. Link here.
Hornkohl, Aaron. “Biblical Hebrew Tense–Aspect–Mood, Word Order and Pragmatics: Some Observations on Recent Approaches.” Open-access version here.
Hovav, Malka. “Lexicalized meaning and the internal temporal structure of events.” Pages 13–42 in S. Rothstein (ed.), Theoretical and Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2008. Available as PDF here.
Kroeger, Paul. Analyzing Meaning: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics. Textbooks in Language Sciences 5. Berlin: Language Science Press, 2018. Part VI, “Tense & aspect” (pp. 377–446). This title can be downloaded here.
Levin, Beth. “Lexical Semantics of Verbs” course handouts. UC Berkeley, 2009. Course Page here. See especially “Lecture 4: Aspectual Approaches to Lexical Semantic Representation” (link). Cf. also Levin’s paper “Verb Classes within and across Languages,” 2013. (link)
McIntyre, Andrew. “Tense, Aspect and Situation Type."
Nadathur, Prerna. “Lexical Semantics” course handouts. Institut für Sprache und Information Heinrich Heine Universität, 2019–20. Course page here. See especially “Week 11: Aspect and aspectual classes I” (link).
“Tense, Aspect, and Modality with Nora Boneh (Part 1 of the Verbal Systems of the Biblical Languages series). The Biblical Languages Podcast. Biblingo, 2021. Link here.
Vendler, Z. “Verbs and Time.” Pages 97–121, Chapter 4 of Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1967. Link here.
Glossary
For terms not included here, please see SIL’s “Glossary of Linguistic Terms.”
Accomplishment: a situation type in which the event happens over time (durative), but does have a natural endpoint (telic). Unlike semelfactives (e.g. blink), accomplishments involve a change, e.g. run a mile; build a house.
Achievement: a situation type in which the event does not happen over time (punctual), but does have a result state. Achievements occur at a single moment, e.g. reached the top; find; win.
Activity: a situation type in which the event happens over time (durative), but doesn’t have a natural endpoint (atelic).
Aspect: a grammatical category which refers broadly to the relationship between a situation and time; cf. situation type; viewpoint aspect.
Atelic: see telicity.
Durativity: This aspectual property asks if the situation starts and stops. A durative situation extends over time (includes states, resultant states, and continuous action). E.g., She was swimming. A punctual situation is presented as happening instantaneously (includes repetitive actions). E.g., He kicked the ball (single), or He was kicking the ball (repetitive).
Phasal aspect:
Punctual: see durativity.
Semelfactive: a situation type in which the event is punctual, but without any resultant state.
Situation type: sometimes referred to as Aktionsart or situation aspect. The most basic distinction is between state and event. A state is a situation characterised by durativity and lack of change, e.g. possessing, desiring, loving, ruling, believing. An event is a situation in which something “happens,” e.g. eating, listening, teaching. An event may be one of four different situation types, see accomplishment; achievement; activity; semelfactive.
Telicity: the property of a situation which indicates whether or not the situation has a natural end point; a situation is either telic or atelic.
Tense: refers to a situation’s location in time.
Viewpoint aspect: sometimes referred to simply as aspect. The traditional distinction in viewpoint aspect is between perfective and imperfective aspect. This category is concerned with how the situation is represented, not its inherent properties. See perfective; imperfective.