A New Perspective on the Syriac Hwayt Qāṭēl in a Non-Past Context

A New Perspective on the Syriac Hwayt Qāṭēl in a Non-Past ContextJournal of Semitic StudiesSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/IYSX8PL3/tei

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

2024-08-15-04:00

Born digital.

CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.LidiaNapiórkowskaA New Perspective on the Syriac Hwayt Qāṭēl in a Non-Past Contexthttp://syriaca.org/cbss/IYSX8PL3https://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/IYSX8PL3https://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/IYSX8PL3Journal of Semitic Studies64:22019419-431This article presents a new perspective on the meaning and function of the Syriac construction hwayt qāṭēl used with a non-past reference. Beginning with the traditional method of cross-linguistic comparison, the author contextualizes the construction in question within a pragmatic- cognitive framework of general linguistics, an approach that has so far been largely overlooked in Syriac studies. The language used here for comparison is the literary Christian of Urmi, a modern dialect of Aramaic, whose verbal system presents itself as a valid typological parallel for Syriac. Thus, through analysing the renditions of hwayt qāṭēl in Christian Urmi Neo-Aramaic within the corpus of the New Testament, the semantics and function of the Syriac hwayt qāṭēl receive precise characteristics, followed by an attempt to explain the use of the past tense form hwayt (perfect) for the present-future reference. An additional brief treatment of other command-related forms in Syriac, such as the imperative and imperative-derived constructions, contributes further, more detailed observations on the Syriac verbal system. Napiórkowska, Lidia. “A New Perspective on the Syriac Hwayt Qāṭēl in a Non-Past Context.” Journal of Semitic Studies 64:2 (2019): 419–31. Lidia Napiórkowska, A New Perspective on the Syriac Hwayt Qāṭēl in a Non-Past Context,” Journal of Semitic Studies 64:2 (2019): 419–31.Classical SyriacModern SyriacSyriac languagegrammarsyntaxverb