Overview Exploring The Discourse-Pragmatic Uses of

147 CHAPTER 8 THE VERBAL USES OF

8.1 Overview

As the WAYYIQTOL form of the verb , often behaves like or carries out the functions of a typical WAYYIQTOL in the biblical Hebrew text see Niccacci 1990, 60. Out of the total number of 864 occurrences of , 458 or 53 function as verbs. The following sections display the various uses of in its basic function as a verb. One of the questions in the full analysis of is whether it is “just” a verb in these cases, or whether it might also have some other function, such as signaling divisions within the text. This question is fundamental to the ultimate objective of this analysis, but judgment is momentarily suspended until the diverse occurrences of as a verb can be examined. Examining all the occurrences is the best way to work toward an answer to this question. A verbal use of is defined as an occurrence of or 5 as the nuclear verb of the clause where the person, number, and gender match that of the subject of the clause. The use of as a “full verb” has been recognized by many scholars and 148 grammarians. Difference of opinion does exist, however, concerning the status and function of these occurrences as a verb. It is important to keep in mind that the following sections present a wide variety of uses andor meanings associated with , but this rather taxonomic presentation should not be construed as implying that there are different types of . Every occurrence is the same verb , but English uses a variety of verbs to express the contextual nuances of meaning. The kind of etic detail in the following sections may seem tedious, but it is necessary for the full description of . Some of the categories may appear subjective. In fact, some of the categories may not seem to reveal significant distinctions that benefit the current analysis of . However, if future research is facilitated by these categories, then an important objective has been met. The early stages of analysis for this study began by making the most basic division possible between ’s occurrences as the main verbal element in independent clauses and the occurrences in dependent temporal constructions. Each subsequent review of the occurrences—both as found in context in the Hebrew Bible and as data being analyzed here—resulted in increasingly finer distinctions based on both syntactic and contextual considerations. The examples throughout the next chapters all have the following format: translation Westminster Grammatical Tags Hebrew text Reference Figure 17: Format of Data Display In almost all examples, at least one full verse is given in the second column from the right. The left-most column displays both a translation and the morphological 149 information for the text example from the Westminster Grammatical Tags database. 1 The translation is based on the NASB , modified according to the analysis or point being made. This information is included with each example to make them more accessible to readers at different levels of proficiency in biblical Hebrew.

8.2 Uses of