Aspect Communicative Appeal and

Temporal Meaning in Biblical Hebrew

Verbal Forms Linguistic Studies in
Ancient West Semitic 1st Edition
Bergström
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 Aspect,
Communicative
Appeal,
and
Temporal Meaning
in Biblical Hebrew
Verbal Forms
Ulf Bergström

Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic

Volume 
Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and
Temporal Meaning in Biblical Hebrew
Verbal Forms
 linguistic studies in ancient west semitic

Edited by
Cynthia L. Miller-​Naudé and Jacobus A. Naudé

The series Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic is devoted to the ancient West
Semitic languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic, Ugaritic, and their near congeners.
It includes monographs, collections of essays, and text editions informed by the
approaches of ​linguistic science. The material studied will span from the earliest
texts to the rise of ​Islam.

1. The Verbless Clause in Biblical Hebrew, by Edited by Cynthia L. Miller

2. Phonology and Morphology of ​Biblical Hebrew, by Joshua Blau
3. A Manual of Ugaritic, by Pierre Bordreuil and Dennis Pardee
4. Word Order in the Biblical Hebrew Finite Clause, by Adina Moshavi
5. Oath Formulas in Biblical Hebrew, by Blane Conklin
6. Biblical Hebrew Grammar Visualized, by Francis I. Andersen and A. Dean Forbes
7. Time and the Biblical Hebrew Verb, by John A. Cook
8. Diachrony in Biblical Hebrew, edited by Cynthia Miller-​Naudé and Ziony Zevit
9. The Syntax of ​Volitives in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite Prose,
by Hélène M. Dallaire
10. The Relative Clause in Biblical Hebrew, by Robert D. Holmstedt
11. Language Change in the Wake of ​Empire, by Aaron Michael Butts
12. Advances in Biblical Hebrew Linguistics, edited by Adina Moshavi and Tania Notarius
13. The Morphophonological Development of the Classical Aramaic Verb, by Joseph L.
Malone
14. Non-​Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible, by Benjamin J. Noonan
15. Judging the Judges, by Mary L. Conway
16. Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning in Biblical Hebrew
Verbal Forms, by Ulf ​Bergström
Aspect, Communicative
Appeal, and Temporal Meaning
in Biblical Hebrew Verbal Forms

Ulf ​B ergström

Eisenbrauns | University Park, Pennsylvania

Library of Congress Cataloging-​in-​Publication Data

Names: Bergström, Ulf, 1974– author.

Title: Aspect, communicative appeal, and temporal meaning in Biblical Hebrew verbal
forms / Ulf ​Bergström.
Other titles: Linguistic studies in ancient West Semitic ; 16.
Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : Eisenbrauns, [2022] | Series: Linguistic
studies in ancient West Semitic ; 16 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “Offers a new explanation for the expression of tense and aspect in Biblical
Hebrew, demonstrating that the verbal forms have basic aspectual and derived tem-
poral meanings”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021054185 | ISBN 9781646021406 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Hebrew language—Verb. | Hebrew language—Aspect. | Hebrew lan-
guage—Tense. | Hebrew language—Semantics.
Classification: LCC PJ4645 .B47 2022 | DDC 492​.45​/6—dc23/eng/20211122
LC record available at https://​lccn​.loc​.gov​/2021054185

Copyright © 2022 Ulf ​Bergström

All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802–1003

Eisenbrauns is an imprint of ​The Pennsylvania State University Press.

The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of University

Presses.

It is the policy of ​The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-​free paper. Pub-
lications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of ​Paper for Printed Library Mate-
rial, ansi z39.48–1992.
Contents

List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Transliteration Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Chapter 1. Introduction 1
1.1. The Problem 1
1.2. Aim 4
1.3. What “Meaning” Means 5
1.3.1. Semantics and Pragmatics 6
1.3.2. Criteria for Explanatory Semantics 8
1.4. The Biblical Hebrew Verbal System 13
1.5. Scope 16
1.5.1. Source Material 16
1.5.2. Diachronic Diversity 18
1.5.3. Prose and Poetry 19
1.6. Summary 21
Chapter 2. Comments on the State of Research 23
2.1. Tense 23
2.2. Aspect 29
2.2.1. Aspect in Classical Grammar 29
2.2.2. Modern Times 32
2.2.3. Reference Time, Focused Time, and Deictic Centers 41
2.2.4. Aspect in Hebraistic Studies 45
2.3. Modality 49
2.4. Linguistic Attitude (Sprechhaltung) 51
2.5. The Grammaticalization Approach 53
2.6. Summary 61
vi Contents

Chapter 3. A Theory of Aspect and Tense 64

3.1. Introductory Note: Nonsemantic Factors Indicating Tense 64
3.2. Aktionsart 66
3.3. Focused Time and the Definition of Tense and Aspect 69
3.4. Stage-​Based Aspect 71
3.4.1. Resultative 71
3.4.2. Progressive 76
3.4.3. Preparative 79
3.4.4. Stage-​Based Aspect and Aktionsart: An Overview 81
3.5. Stage-​Based Versus Limit-​Based Analysis of Aspect 84
3.6. Temporalization 89
3.7. Summary 94
Chapter 4. Progressive and Resultative Verbs in Biblical Hebrew 96
4.1. Qotel 98
4.1.1. Invariant Progressive qotel 98
4.1.2. Temporalized qotel 103
4.1.3. Nonprogressive and Nominal qotel 104
4.2. Yiqtol-L 108
4.2.1. Invariant Progressive yiqtol-L 108
4.2.2. Temporalized yiqtol-L 114
4.3. Qatal 118
4.3.1. Invariant Resultative qatal 119
4.3.2. Temporalized qatal 132
4.3.3. Adjectival and Verbal Stative qatal 141
4.4. Yiqtol-S 142
4.4.1. Invariant Resultative yiqtol-S: wayyiqtol 142
4.4.2. Temporalized wayyiqtol 149
4.4.3. Free-​Standing Declarative yiqtol-S 151
4.4.4. Volitive yiqtol-S 155
4.5. Summary 156
Chapter 5. Communicative Appeal and the Semantics of the Biblical
Hebrew Verb 157
5.1. The Semiotic Foundations for a Theory of Appeal in Language 158
5.2. Criteria for Full Communicative Appeal 162
5.2.1. Imminence 162
5.2.2. Nonexpectancy 163
5.2.3. Efficiency 165
5.3. Communicative Appeal and Verbal Grammar: The Case of the
English Progressives 170
 Contents vii

5.4. Communicative Appeal in the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System 172

5.4.1. The Resultative Subsystem 173
5.4.2. The Progressive Subsystem 176
5.4.3. The Volitive Subsystem 180
5.5. Summary 186
Chapter 6 Conclusion 188

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Illustrations

Figures
1. Andrason’s diachronic pathways of yiqtol-L 55
2. The nuclear event in the framework of the extended event model 83
3. Typical positions of focused time in relation to the extended and the
nuclear event 85

Tables
1. Completed and uncompleted in Greek and Latin 31
2. Imperfective and perfective aspect in Russian 33
3. Evidence for an iterative-​continuative-​progressive-​habitual pathway in
verbal forms 57
4. Evidence for an iterative-​frequentative-​habitual pathway in verbal
forms 58
5. Stage-​based aspect and appeal in the Biblical Hebrew verbal system 192

ix
Acknowledgments

Several individuals deserve mention for their help in the process of writing
this book, first and foremost Göran Eidevall, who has read and commented
extensively on all parts of the work from the very first drafts to the final prod-
uct. I have also continually received encouraging feedback from Sören Holst.
Important revisions and amplifications of the work have been made following
reviews by Jan Retsö and John Cook.
Further, I am grateful to Atle Grönn for stimulating e‑mail conversations
concerning some of the basic issues of the study. A special, heartfelt thanks also
goes to Nils B. Thelin, who read my early drafts on aspect theory, and whose
detailed and penetrating comments helped me to improve my arguments and
think critically about my work.
Throughout working on the project, I had the opportunity to present my drafts
at numerous colloquia and conferences where I received much appreciated feed-
back: the colloquia in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and Semitic languages
at Uppsala University, the colloquia in the Old Testament/biblical exegesis at
Lund University, the University of ​Helsinki, Åbo Akademi University, and the
University of Copenhagen, and, last but not least, the conferences organized
within the OTSEM network. Many individuals from these contexts could be
named here, but, lest I forget someone, I restrict myself to mentioning only a
few people who have given substantial input as respondents to papers and/or
as conversational partners: Lotta Valve, Ola Wikander, Bo Johnson, Hugh Wil-
liamson, Kevin Cathcart, Andreas Scherer, Mats Eskhult, and Bo Isaksson.
Lastly, I am also indebted to the anonymous reviewer and the series editors,
Cynthia Miller-​Naudé and Jacobus Naudé, for their helpful comments.

xi
Abbreviations

Bible Translations
NIV New International Version
NRSV New Revised Standard Version

Various Grammatical Terms

AOR aorist
C consonant
CC double consonant
D deictic center
E event (time)
F mutual focus of attention/focused content of the event/focused
time
IMPF imperfect
PFCT perfect
PLUP pluperfect
PRS present
PST past tense
RES resultative
S speech (time)
TAM Tense, Aspect, Modality

Interlinear Grammatical Glossing

1/2/3 first/second/third person
COH cohortative
F feminine
IMP imperative
INFA absolute infinitive
INFC infinitive construct

xiii
xiv Abbreviations

JUSS jussive
M masculine
OBJ object marker
PASS passive
PL plural
PST past tense
Q question particle
QOT active participle, qotel
QTAL suffix conjugation, qatal
QUOT quotative
SG singular
YQTL prefix conjugation, yiqtol
YQTL-​L long yiqtol
YQTL-​S short yiqtol, morphologically recognizable
YQTL(S) short yiqtol, reconstructed

An asterisk before an example indicates that it is not normal.

Transliteration Key

Consonants Vowels
‫א‬ ʾ ִ i
‫ב‬, ‫ב‬ b, ḇ ‫ִי‬ î
‫ּג‬, ‫ג‬ g, ḡ ֵ e
‫ּד‬, ‫ד‬ d, ḏ ‫ֵי‬ ê
‫ה‬ h ‫ֵה‬ eʰ
‫ו‬ w ֶ æ
‫ז‬ z ‫ֶי‬ æ̂
‫ח‬ ḥ ‫ֶה‬ æʰ
‫ט‬ ṭ ָ ā, o
‫י‬ y ‫ָה‬ â
‫ּכ‬, ‫כ‬ k, ḵ ‫ָי‬ āʸ
‫ל‬ l ַ a
‫מ‬ m ‫ַה‬ aʰ
‫נ‬ n ֹ ō
‫ס‬ s ‫ֹו‬ ô
‫ע‬ ʿ ‫ֹה‬ ōʰ
‫ּפ‬, ‫פ‬ p, p̄ ֻ u
‫צ‬ ṣ ‫ּו‬ û
‫ק‬ q ְ ə
‫ר‬ r ֱ æ̆
‫ׂש‬ ś ֲ ă
‫ׁש‬ š ֳ ŏ
‫ּת‬, ‫ת‬ t, ṯ

xv
Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1. The Problem

At the core of the problem with the Biblical Hebrew verbal forms lies the
question of their temporal meanings. The problem is partly a very practical one,
especially in poetry, as any comparison between different translations of, for
instance, Psalm 18 will reveal. But beyond that, the theoretical problem is even
more pervasive, since scholars often disagree on how to analyze the meaning
of a form, even when the question of how to translate it into another language
may not be an issue. This lack of consensus is visible already in the grammati-
cal terminology used in the literature. Most commonly, the terms used for the
forms signify some kind of tense, aspect, or modality (TAM). If we take the so-​
called yiqtol-form as an example,1 excluding the variant that normally has a
proclitic wa- appended, we find it described in the literature as “present-​future,”2
“future,”3 “simultaneous,”4 “modal-​futural,”5 “modal,”6 “imperfective,”7 both
imperfective and future,8 and “non-​perfective.”9 Matters are further complicated

1. Below, I shall refer to this form as “yiqtol-L”; see section 1.4.

2. Blau 1976 §20.1. Another way of referring to the same concept is to use the negative term
“nonpast” (e.g., Hetzron 1987, 697).
3. Silverman (1973, 168) terms yiqtol “simple future” (as opposed to “waw future,” i.e., weqa-
taltí), but see also p. 175, where he states that this form “always refers to future or present time in
its widest sense.”
4. Kuryłowicz 1972, 84, §14. More exactly, Kuryłowicz speaks of “simultaneity” as the value
of yiqtol.
5. See Zuber 1986, 16 (in German, the term is modal-​futurisch).
6. Hatav 1997, 198; Joosten 2012, 39.
7. See, among others, Tropper 1998, 178; Gentry 1998, 15; Cook 2006, 32. The same notion is
also referred to by various equivalent terms, such as the French “inaccompli” (M. Cohen 1924, 12) or
the English “uncompleted” (Weingreen 1959, §29).
8. Andersen 2000, 50.
9. Waltke and O’Connor 1990, §§29.6e; 31.1.2a. As “nonperfective,” the yiqtol is the un-
marked counterpart of the perfective qatal, which is to say that the form becomes imperfective

1
2 Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning

by the existence of various grammatical terms that relate in unclear ways to

the TAM categories. For example, in Diethelm Michel’s nomenclature, yiqtol
expresses “abhängige Handlung” (“dependent action”),10 Péter Kustár through
a similar notion calls the form “determiniert” (“determined”),11 and Wolfgang
Schneider (among others) says that its fundamental property is to indicate a
certain Sprechhaltung (“linguistic attitude”), which characterizes the subtype
of discourse that he calls “Besprechen” (“discussion”).12 Harald Baayen fol-
lows Schneider but employs the term “focal referential concern” for the same
function.13
One of the challenges for semantic interpretation is to strike a balance
between the descriptive and the explanatory aspects of the analysis. Many schol-
ars would agree that the old classification of yiqtol as a future tense is of a rather
descriptive kind and that the shift to the aspect-​based approach that began to
gain prominence in the nineteenth century was an attempt at establishing a ter-
minology with more explanatory reach. Even if the success of this undertaking
might be disputed, a reasonable goal for a study of verbal semantics should be to
go deeper than to call the form by the same name as its most frequent equivalent
in, for example, Greek, Latin, or English. Accordingly, with regard to the many
suggested meaning-​labels for yiqtol, we would like to know how each of them
relates to the whole range of temporal meanings that the form is able to express.
That is, if the yiqtol is an imperfective rather than a future form, does that mean
that the imperfective meaning may give rise to the very common future mean-
ing of the form by means of some inferential process? Or, if it is a future, how
are the nonfuture meanings of the form to be accounted for? The same type of
questions, of course, could be posed with regard to the other forms of the sys-
tem. We should not accept the answer that the temporal meaning of the forms
depends solely on contextual factors and has nothing to do with factors internal

when contrasted with the perfective form, even though by itself it is neither perfective nor im-
perfective.
10. Michel (1960, 254) describes the semantic difference between yiqtol and the perfect, or qatal,
as follows: “Das Perfectum wird zur Wiedergabe einer Handlung gewählt, wenn diese als selbst-
gewichtig, als absolute angesehen wird [. . .]. Das Imperfectum wird zur Wiedergabe einer Handlung
gewählt wenn diese ihre Bedeutung von etwas ausserhalb der Handlung selbst liegendem bekommt,
also relativ ist.”
11. Kustár (1972, 44–46) claims that his concept “determiniert,” as well as its counterpart “deter-
minierend” (represented by qatal), are aspects. His definition of aspect is very far from mainstream,
though, and it is difficult to see how it can be functionally related with the other categories in the
TAM-​complex.
12. The linguistic attitude characteristic of Besprechen, or discussion, is a tense and responsive
state of mind. Thus Schneider (2001, §48.1): “Besprechende Rede engagiert ihn [i.e., the listener]:
Sprecher und Hörer haben zu agieren und zu reagieren.”
13. Baayen 1997, 247. Both Schneider and Baayen follow Weinrich (1977) in this regard. Other
proponents of the same approach are Talstra and Niccacci (see 2.4).
 Introduction 3

to the forms, because they are, after all, used not randomly but in regular and
fairly predictable ways.14
A complicating factor, however, is that even the meanings of the gram-
matical terms are disputed. This is particularly the case with aspect. To begin
with, the classical aspect categories completed and uncompleted have been
understood rather differently throughout their history—a fact that explains
that the terms “perfect” and “perfective,” both derived from the Latin perfec-
tum (“completed”), mean different things in modern linguistics. Furthermore,
many new aspect categories have been suggested, so that it is very difficult
to get a clear idea of how many “aspects” there are, which they are, and how
they relate to one another. To mention a few examples from Hebraistic studies,
whereas Marcel Cohen works with the classical binary opposition of accompli
and inaccompli (i.e., completed/uncompleted), Frithiof Rundgren counts three
hierarchically arranged pairs—namely, stative:fiens, cursive:constative, and
punctual:neutral—and Galia Hatav has the progressive, the perfect, and the
sequential, and so forth.15 More examples could be given. The word “aspect”
as such is hardly sufficient to explain what linguistic phenomenon is being
described in each of these proposed models. To this day, there is no authoritative
and universally accepted definition of aspect. In some cases, this leads to con-
fusion of aspect with other grammatical categories. For example, some would
say that the typical perfect construction (like the English I have done) expresses
perfect aspect; others would argue that it expresses the relative tense value of
anteriority.
One of the strongest trends in the Hebraistics of the new millennium is the
evolutionary, or grammaticalization approach (2.5). It sees the various mean-
ings of the verbal forms as the result of an evolution that can be reconstructed,
so that two or more meanings that can be expressed by the same form at a given
time in the history of the language can be ordered in terms of their relative age.
The conclusions about the relative age of the meanings are drawn on the basis
of comparisons with the corresponding verbal forms in genetically related, and
preferably older, languages, as well as comparisons with similar forms in lan-
guages of all families, ancient and modern (typological studies). Through such
comparisons, a verbal form can be classified as an example of a certain cross-​
linguistic type, the development of which is known to be fairly predictable. Such

14. Answers to this effect have been suggested; see Sperber 1966, 591–92; Hughes 1970, 13;
Greenstein 1988, 14. As opposed to those who call yiqtol “nonperfective” or “nonpast,” these authors
do not reckon with stable meanings in other forms of the verbal system, whereby the meaning of
yiqtol can be defined. See also Baayen (1997, 245) on the qatal-form. Zuber (1986, 27) claims that
there are two semantically distinct subsystems of verbal forms in Biblical Hebrew. Within each
subsystem there are no semantic distinctions; the choice of form is made on purely stylistic grounds.
15. M. Cohen 1924, v, 12; Rundgren 1961, 72; Hatav 1997, 6–8.
4 Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning

studies confirm, for instance, that the stative/resultative and intransitive mean-
ing expressed by the qatal-form (e.g., yāšaḇtî, “I am seated”) is older than the
perfect transitive qatal with active meaning (kāṯaḇtî, “I have written”), which,
in turn, is older than the preterite interpretation of the form (kāṯaḇtî, “I wrote”).
Each of these meanings can be likened to stations on a diachronic pathway,
along which the verbal forms travel throughout their history—with the impor-
tant qualification that verbal forms may retain old meanings alongside the new
ones (they do not have to leave one station to get to the next, as it were). For
Biblical Hebrew, two major pathways leading from some kind of “aspectual”
to temporal meanings can be reconstructed. The one is from resultative to past,
the other from progressive to future.16 The former track is occupied by qatal and
wayyiqtol (below: yiqtol-S), the latter by qotel and yiqtol (below: yiqtol-L).17
This outline indicates that the temporal meanings of the Biblical Hebrew
verbal forms somehow derive from the aspectual ones. There are still many
questions surrounding this development, especially from a theoretical point of
view. How are the aspectual meanings of the forms to be defined? How does a
certain aspectual meaning favor the development of a certain tense meaning?
What is the semantic difference between the forms on the same diachronic
pathway?

1.2. Aim

The aim of the present study is to increase the understanding of how the expres-
sion of temporal meanings in Biblical Hebrew relates to the semantics of the
verbal forms. The overarching aim will be accomplished through a synthesis of
the following elements:

1. a definition of aspect and an application of this definition on the progres-

sive and the resultative verbal types
2. an account of how tense meanings are derived from aspectual meanings
3. an application of the general theory to the Biblical Hebrew verbal system
4. an analysis of the semantic difference between the forms that belong on
the same diachronic pathway

16. In section 3.4 we shall return to the question of what kind of aspect the progressive and the
resultative are.
17. This description is very simplified, but it gives a general idea of the facts of main interest for
this study. In reality, pathways intertwine so that a given source can have more than one endpoint
and vice versa. For some examples of intertwined pathways, see Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca 1994,
105, 240–41. See also the discussion in section 2.5 below.
 Introduction 5

A few comments on each of these four points is in order:

Point 1: A clear, general definition of aspect is necessary in view of the widely
differing opinions about what the term refers to and which aspectual categories
there are. The definition has to take its point of departure in the classical notion
of (un)completedness, and the ways it has been and can be interpreted, espe-
cially under the designation of (im)perfectivity (see section 2.2). It is further
necessary to find out how the modern grammatical categories progressive and
resultative fit with the concept of aspect, as well as to address the question of
the distinction between aspect and relative tense (2.1, 2.2.3). The latter question
is especially relevant to the debate about the nature of the so-​called perfects.
Point 2: Given the fact that originally resultative and progressive forms tend
to favor opposite tense meanings, it is to be assumed that something in the
semantics of those forms invites the inference of those particular tense mean-
ings. If this is the case, the definition of aspect has to accommodate this circum-
stance (3.5, 3.6).
Point 3: The classification of the Biblical Hebrew verbal forms in terms of
their aspecto-​temporal meanings is basically given by the typological scheme
provided within the framework of grammaticalization studies, although there
is some room for diverging opinions as to how to set up the inventory of Bibli-
cal Hebrew verbal forms. The choice made in the present study is dealt with in
section 1.4.
Point 4: An important consideration with regard to the question of what con-
stitutes the semantic difference between the forms on the same diachronic path-
way is whether we should define that difference in terms of TAM or some other
semantic category. An attempt to see the problem from a new angle is made in
chapter 5 through a reinterpretation of Weinrich’s notion of linguistic attitude
(Sprechhaltung).

1.3. What “Meaning” Means

A study of the meaning of verbal forms may become a bewildering enterprise

if there is no decision about what is meant by “meaning.” First of all, the reader
should know that the word “meaning” in itself is not used as some kind of
technical term in this study; that is, it means no less and no more than it does in
everyday language. If more precision is required, either the word will be quali-
fied, or other terms will be used. The following subsection (1.3.1) will treat the
concepts of “semantic” and “pragmatic” meaning. This discussion prepares
the ground for the discussion in subsection 1.3.2 about how to establish the
“basic” semantic meanings of verbal forms.
6 Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning

1.3.1. Semantics and Pragmatics

Language is a tool for communication, functioning within a communicative

situation consisting of sender, receiver, and the things referred to. An important
consequence of this, famously described by Karl Bühler in his Sprachteorie,
is that the linguistic expression is many-​sided and can only be fully understood
in relation to each of these entities. For example, the cry “Wolf !” would, in Büh-
ler’s terminology, be interpreted at the same time as an expression (Ausdruck)
of the mind, emotions, etc. of the sender, an appeal (Appell) to the attention,
responsiveness, etc. of the receiver, and a representation (Darstellung) of the
animal that is being denoted.18 Even though these three functions always co-​
occur, any one of them may come more or less to the fore depending on what
particular speech-​act is being performed. For instance, if the utterance “Wolf !”
is intended as a warning, the appeal is felt very strongly. The expressive function
would be more palpable if the same word were exclaimed by a person with a
very strong (positive or negative) sentiment toward the animal, who unexpect-
edly came across a track of it in the neighborhood. Finally, the same word can be
used first and foremost for representation—we may think of a more educational
situation, where it is used as an answer to the question “What animal left this
track?”
There is a certain asymmetry in the above example, however. We observe
that, even though the interpretation of the speech acts containing the word
“wolf ” varies as to the relative dominance of expressive, representative, and
appeal functions, one factor remains stable all the way through—namely, the
representation of a particular kind of animal. In a certain sense, then, nouns,
like “wolf,” conventionalize, or encode representational function. However, not
only representation but also expression and appeal can be encoded to various
degrees, as in the interjections yippee (expression) and hello (appeal). A good
example of the whole spectrum of functions may be the moods in Latin. Thus,
whereas appeal dominates in the imperative (dice, “say!”), the balance tips
toward the expressive side in the optative subjunctive (dicas, “may you say”),
and toward the representative function in the indicative (dicis, “you say”).
Now, most ordinary people would no doubt agree that not only the statement
accomplished by the indicative but also the command encoded in the imperative
and the wish expressed by the subjunctive are meanings of those same forms.
It is equally certain, however, that within the linguistic discipline devoted to

18. Bühler 1965, 28–29. The example is mine. Note that the word “expression” is used here in
two senses: when it occurs in the phrase “linguistic expression,” it refers to the speech-​product,
whether in terms of a specific utterance or in terms of the linguistic forms that the utterance is con-
sists of (morphemes, words, phrases); when it is used in isolation, it refers to the relation between
the speaker and the linguistic expression.
 Introduction 7

the study of meaning in language—that is, semantics—representation is the

function that has received by far the most attention. One may point to several
reasons for this. First, representation is the dominant function in language.19
Second, there has been intense activity among semanticists working within the
field of truth-​conditional semantics, a method that can only be applied to repre-
sentation.20 Finally, influential theoreticians have explicitly stated that semantics
concerns only the relation between the linguistic expressions and the things
they represent.21 This has been done in an attempt to draw the line theoretically
between semantics and the neighboring discipline of pragmatics. Thus, every-
thing that concerns the relation between the linguistic utterance and the sender
and receiver—that is, the users of the linguistic expression—has been assigned
to pragmatics. Such a distinction excludes the study of expression and appeal
(hence optative and imperative moods) from the province of semantics and
confines it to the field of pragmatics.22 However, according to another distinc-
tion very commonly drawn, semantics has to do with conventional meaning
and pragmatics with situational meaning.23 By conventional meaning is under-
stood a meaning that is encoded, or inherent, in a morpheme, word, or phrase.
We may, for convenience’s sake, call it a semantic unit. Situational meaning is a
meaning that is associated with a semantic unit due to conditions in (a) specific
context(s). In this view, expression and appeal can and should be treated in
semantic analysis, since these functions can be encoded by semantic units and
therefore also decoded from such units irrespective of context.
Obviously, we are left here with two incompatible conceptions of semantics
and pragmatics. The question is which of them to choose.24 In my opinion,

19. This point is stressed by Bühler (1965, 30).

20. See Palmer 1981, 42–43; Davis 1991, 7.
21. For historical outlines, see Lyons 1977, 114–17; Recanati 2004, 443–44.
22. The first and one of the most influential scholars to distinguish in this way between seman-
tics and pragmatics was Charles Morris. In his Foundations of the Theory of Signs (1938), he stated
that semantics is the study of “the relation of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable,”
and pragmatics is the study of “the relation of signs to interpreters [“interpreters” corresponds to
“sender” and “receiver” above]” (Morris [1938] 1971a, 21–22). The popularity of this simple and
catchy formulation seems to have overshadowed the fact that Morris later widened the scope of
semantics. In Signs, Language, and Behavior he states that “other modes of signification than the
designative must be dealt with in semantics.” According to the reformulated definition “semantics
deals with the signification of signs in all modes of signifying” (Morris [1946] 1971b, 302). This is
to say that semantics includes other functions than representation (representation corresponds to
Morris’s “designative mode of signification”).
23. Recanati 2004, 445; Trask 1999, 243.
24. Recanati writes about the theoretical impasse arising from these conflicting views: “Some
linguistic forms (e.g., goodbye, or the imperative mood) have a ‘pragmatic’ rather than a ‘semantic’
meaning: they have use conditions but do not ‘represent’ anything and hence do not contribute to
the utterance’s truth conditions. Because there are such expressions—and arguably there are many
of them and every sentence contains at least one—we have to choose: either semantics is defined as
8 Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning

to confine semantics to the representational function of the linguistic expres-

sion is untenable. For one thing, it is too much in conflict with the common
understanding of the word “meaning” to exclude the expressive and appeal
functions of linguistic expressions from a study of meaning in language. For
another, the pioneer of semantic studies, Michel Bréal, included these functions
on equal terms with the representative function in his work Essaie de séman-
tique, a book that was written long before the attempts to distinguish semantics
from pragmatics.25 From Bréal and onward, the quest for conventional mean-
ings has really been the gist of “semantic” studies, even in periods when they
have been restricted to the representational function of the semantic unit. The
birth of pragmatic theories like Austin’s speech-​act theory and Grice’s theory of
conversational implicature, came very much as reactions to the neglect of con-
textual factors in the linguistic study of meaning. Consequently, the opinion that
semantics deals with conventional meaning is more to the point than the view
that it is the study of representation in language. Thus, when I henceforth use
the term “semantic meaning,” it refers to what I have here called conventional
meaning, whereas “pragmatic meaning” corresponds to situational meaning.
However, I shall take the term “conventional” in a very restricted sense and
include as semantic only those meanings that are most intrinsic to the form, as I
will explain in the following subsection.

1.3.2. Criteria for Explanatory Semantics

Even if the distinction between semantic and pragmatic meaning is well moti-
vated, it has to be admitted that an exact dividing line can be hard to draw.
It is a well-​known fact that semantic meanings develop from pragmatic mean-
ings. What occasions this is probably that semantic units in given contexts can
be ambiguous between a semantic meaning and a pragmatic meaning that is
naturally inferred from it. If the inference is made often enough, it may hap-
pen that the unit starts to be used with its pragmatic meaning also in contexts
where the same ambiguity with the semantic meaning does not exist. That is to
say, the pragmatic meaning has become so intrinsic to the unit that it is no longer
dependent on the original context. At that stage, the once pragmatic meaning
has reached a status that is normally understood as semantic. An example of
an English word that has gone through this development is since. Originally,
it was an adverbial with the meaning “after that,” but when it started to be used

the study of conventional meaning, or it is defined as the study of words-​world relations. We can’t
have it both ways” (Recanati 2004, 445).
25. See Bréal’s treatment of the “subjective element” in language (Bréal 1964, chapter 25).
Note also that Bréal contrasted semantics not with pragmatics (or syntax) but with phonetics (Bréal
1964, chapter 1).
 Introduction 9

as a conjunction it often acquired a connotation of causality. This ultimately

led to a semantic reanalysis whereby it became possible to express the causal
meaning independently of the temporal meaning.26 Three examples borrowed
from Hopper and Traugott illustrate the development of the form in its function
as a conjunction. In the first sentence, since has only temporal meaning, in the
second sentence, it is ambiguous between a temporal and a causal meaning, and
in the third, there is only a causal meaning:27

(1) a. I have done quite a bit of writing since we last got together.
b. Since Susan left him, John has been very miserable.
c. Since I have a final exam tomorrow, I won’t be able to go out
tonight.

Exactly when a reanalysis is accomplished is impossible to tell, since it always

must happen in contexts where there is room for ambiguity. Moreover, the use
of a semantic unit may vary across generations, social groups, and even within
individuals. Consequently, the answer to the question whether a certain mean-
ing is semantic or pragmatic depends on whom you ask. In fact, we should not
think that semantic meanings exist apart from the language users. A meaning is
semantic because it is thought of as inherent in the unit. However, since language
is a common good, semantic meaning cannot be entirely subjective. It has to be
communicable, hence more or less stable, hence also definable, although it is also
negotiable to a certain degree. Ultimately, semantic meaning will always depend
on actual language use. Under these conditions, a meaning can be said to be
semantic with some degree of objectivity if it is regularly used in contexts where
it is not ambiguous with some other semantic meaning—a criterion that is met
in the case of the causal meaning of since in example (1). Conversely, a meaning
that only occurs in contexts where it is ambiguous with a semantic meaning must
be defined as pragmatic. This applies, for instance, to the request function of can,
as in Can you give me some water? (see further discussion in subsection 5.2.3).
For the purposes of this study, it is necessary not only to distinguish between
semantic and pragmatic meanings but also to find out what meanings are more
basic than others. In the case of since, I consider the temporal meaning to be
more basic than the causal, because the temporal meaning explains the causal
meaning, but the reverse is not the case.
I shall use two heuristic criteria for establishing basic semantic meanings.
The first of these is the criterion of invariance. Semantic invariance means that

26. Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, new rev. ed.
(1994), s.v. “since.”
27. Hopper and Traugott 2003, 80, 81.
10 Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning

the same meaning can be applied in different contexts and on different lexemes
thanks to our ability for analogical reasoning. For instance, across contexts, the
sense of an ongoing dynamic process in the English progressive form is pres-
ent in both I am running and I was running, although in the former it is set in
the present, and in the latter it is past. Similarly, across lexemes, a sense of
dynamism is imparted to the predicate when the progressive is formed on an
adjective (You’re being naughty), even though the adjective, lexically speaking,
has a stative quality.28 Now, the criterion of invariance requires that the basic
meaning of a linguistic form should be defined so as to accommodate the widest
possible range of contexts and lexemes. Thus, in section 3.5 below, I show that
my definition of “progressive aspect” applies to the English progressive forms
not only in all contexts for which the conventional definition of “imperfective
aspect” holds but also in contexts where the progressive forms have aorist mean-
ing, which is incompatible with imperfective meaning. Hence, according to the
criterion of invariance, my progressive meaning is more basic to the English
progressive forms than imperfective meaning.
Second, following a criterion of cognitive precedence, I shall consider
the basic meaning to be the one from which other meanings of the forms can
be derived through reanalysis. Reanalysis, as described in the discussion of
example (1) above, is a semantic “rule-​change” that overturns the basic meaning
and gives rise to a new semantic meaning in the form.29 A common example of
reanalysis of verbal forms is the future interpretation of the so-​called prospec-
tive constructions, such as the English to be about to. Normally, this construc-
tion has present meaning, referring to the pre-​stage of some event (Right now,
I’m about to take a nap), but through reanalysis of the temporal structure of
the phrase, it may be thought of as referring to the ensuing event, and the tense
becomes future (I’m about to take a nap in a few minutes).30
It is necessary to bear in mind that different aspects of the meaning of a form
can give rise to different forms of reanalysis, which means that a form can be
invariant with regard to one of its meanings while it is reanalyzed with regard to
another. For example, the English perfect is derived from a so-​called resultative
source by a reanalysis of diathesis from passive to active, but it is invariant in
terms of its aspectual meaning (which motivates my use of the term “resulta-
tive” for perfects; see subsection 3.4.1). It may also be the case that more than
one meaning is invariant across lexemes, as in the above-​mentioned example
You’re being naughty, which expresses both the Aktionsart and the aspect of the

28. Even in adjectives, however, there are shades of dynamicity; see further section 3.2.
29. Hopper and Traugott 2003, 50, 63–64, 71.
30. This kind of reanalysis, which is treated under the heading “temporalization” in section 3.6
below, is more common with the construction to be going to, which is another English form often
said to be prospective.
 Introduction 11

prototypical progressive. In this study, I am interested in the temporal semantics

of the verbal forms; hence the term “invariance” generally refers only to aspec-
tual invariance. Aspectual invariance is dealt with below in sections 3.4, 3.5,
4.1.1, 4.2.1, 4.3.1, and 4.4.1. Reanalysis is discussed in sections 3.6, 4.1.2, 4.2.2,
4.3.2, and 4.4.2.
The approach to verbal morphosemantics taken in this study resembles the
“principled polysemy” proposed by Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans in their
study of the meaning of English prepositions.31 Their aim is to define vari-
ous “distinct senses” of the prespositions and to identify a “primary sense”
(cf. my “basic meaning”) from which the other distinct senses can be derived.32
Against this approach, it has been argued that “it may not be the case that a
particular lexical form has a single primary sense from which language users
perceive all other senses being derived.”33 This criticism raises several issues at
once. Firstly, there may not be any original basic meaning (or “primary sense”)
from which to derive others, because the basic meaning may have gone out of
use. If two semantic meanings (or “distinct senses”) in such a form have devel-
oped from one and the same now lost meaning through different ways of reanal-
ysis, neither of them is the basic meaning. The form has become a so-​called
doughnut gram with a “hole” in the place of the central node of the semantic
network, where the unifying basic meaning once existed.34 Second, it may be
impossible to say with any reasonable certainty which meaning derives from
the other without historical evidence from written sources.35 And, third, even if
this could be achieved through rigorous reasoning and/or comparative evidence,
actual language users may not perceive the different meanings as related in that
way.
There are different ways of dealing with these problems depending on
whether the object of study is prepositions or verbal forms or some other cat-
egory. As far as verbal forms are concerned, they tend to conform to well-​known
crosslinguistic types (e.g., resultatives and progressives), which makes the ques-
tion of the diachronic relation between existing meanings relatively unproblem-
atic. For the same reason, it is often possible to identify verbal doughnut grams
(although this is not pertinent to the forms under scrutiny in the present study).
As to the question of how language users perceive the relation between basic

31. Tyler and Evans 2003, 37–38.

32. See Tyler and Evans 2003, 42 n. 5, according to which prepositions can acquire distinct
senses by the change of the spatial configurations or by changing from spatial to altogether non-
spatial meaning. On their view of the role of reanalysis in this process, see, e.g., 60–61, 79–106 in
the same study.
33. Tyler and Evans 2003, 59.
34. On doughnut grams, see Dahl 2000b, 10. The term “gram” is a shorthand for “grammatical
morpheme” (Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca 1994, 2).
35. Tyler and Evans 2003, 46–47.
12 Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning

and derived meanings, it must at the very least be considered probable that such
meanings are felt to be somehow semantically related; that is, there is a poly-
semy of related meanings within one form rather than a homonymy of distinct
forms with unrelated meanings. The relatedness of basic and derived meanings
can be very obvious when forms within the same semantic domain are com-
pared. Thus, it has been noted that the original deontic and volitive meanings
of the English verbs shall and will restrict their use even as future auxiliaries.36
By contrast, the future meaning of the phrase be going to tends to be associated
with intentionality, just as the nonfuture meaning from which it derives.37
It is worth pointing out at this stage that the parameter of frequency does
not play a role in the kind of semantics that I am proposing in this study. In this
regard, I differ from Tyler and Evans, who count frequency (“predominance”)
among the criteria for determining primary senses of prepositions.38 The same
can be said with regard to a study by Alexander Andrason and Christo van
der Merwe, who in a similar fashion combine the factors of frequency and
diachronic precedence to establish the “prototypical” (cf. “basic”) meaning of
the Biblical Hebrew qatal.39 I do not see how this is helpful, given the above-​
mentioned fact that the oldest meaning of a form does not have to be the most
frequent one.
Andrason and van der Merwe actually promote frequency at the expense of
diachrony in their semantic analysis, since they claim that frequency alone
defines prototypicality. The most frequent sense, they write, constitutes the
“conceptual nucleus of the map from which [most] other senses cognitively
emerge.”40 If this is so, however, prototypicality must be a very complex con-
cept; the implication of Andrason’s and van der Merwe’s statement is that, when
a new sense becomes more frequent than the prototypical, older sense from
which it emerged cognitively by analogy or reanalysis, suddenly the older sense
somehow begins to emerge cognitively from the new sense, and the prototype
becomes the derivative. Moreover, it is unclear exactly what cognitive processes
are triggered in this way by frequency. While it seems plausible to assume that
the most frequent meaning will be the one that people are most likely to think
of when the form is mentioned in isolation, the question here is how, and indeed
whether, the most frequent meaning affects how we interpret the form in vari-
ous contexts of actual use. Whatever the answer to that question may be, it is

36. Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca 1994, 15–17. It may be debated whether shall and will still
can express their original meanings apart from the derived future meanings, but that does not affect
the argument.
37. Langacker 2011, 85–88.
38. Tyler and Evans 2003, 47.
39. Andrason and van der Merwe 2015, 87.
40. Andrason and van der Merwe 2015, 87.
 Introduction 13

highly implausible that an old meaning suddenly ceases to provide a cognitive

basis for a new meaning only because it becomes a little less frequent. Conse-
quently, the inferences whereby less frequent meanings “emerge” from frequent
meanings, if they exist at all, must exist side by side with the inferences that
work diachronically. This possibility should perhaps not be ruled out, but, in my
opinion, the role of the most frequent meaning in the semantics of a form is still
very hard to assess, and it is probably not quite as important as Andrason and
Van der Merwe claim.

1.4. The Biblical Hebrew Verbal System

The verbal forms under consideration in this investigation are the active parti-
ciple qotel in predicative position, the suffix conjugation qatal, and the prefix
conjugation yiqtol. The yiqtol conjugation is further subdivided into a “long”
and a “short” variant, the yiqtol-L and the yiqtol-S. These are the main forms
used in declarative utterances in Biblical Hebrew, and each of them is associ-
ated with certain aspectual and temporal meanings. The following overview
lists some particular TAM meanings that are especially characteristic of the
form in question:

qotel: progressive meaning regardless of tense, instant future;41

yiqtol-L: generic/habitual meaning regardless of tense, future;
qatal: perfect meaning regardless of tense, nonnarrative past;
yiqtol-S: narrative past, volitive (jussive-​prohibitive, cohortative).

The subdivision of yiqtol into yiqtol-L and yiqtol-S is to a large extent an arti-
ficial reconstruction based on two early West Semitic forms (yaqtulu and yaq-
tul), whose distinctive morphological features in Biblical Hebrew are reduced
to mere vestiges in the shape of a group of “apocopated” forms in some third-​
person singular verbs.42 However, by means of these apocopated forms and

41. “Progressive” will be used in a wider sense below and “instant future” will at least partly be
covered by the term “preparative” (see subsections 3.4.2 and 3.4.3).
42. On the derivation of the Hebrew prefix-​conjugation from the West Semitic yaqtul and yaq-
tulu, see Bergsträsser 1929; Müller 1988, 164–66; Waltke and O’Connor 1990, §29.4f–j; Tropper
1998, 161–64. On the derivation of the Hebrew prefix-​conjugation from the West Semitic yaqtul and
yaqtulu, see Bergsträsser 1929; Müller 1988, 164–66; Waltke and O’Connor 1990, §29.4f–j; Tropper
1998, 161–64. The long and short variants that have been identified in the Canaanite elements of the
Amarna letters are the closest genetic relatives (Moran 2003, 41–49). The morphological evidence
for the existence of the short form in this source material is not entirely conclusive but can be cor-
roborated through syntactic analysis (Baranowski 2016). Ugaritic has also been pointed out as a
relatively closely related language where the distinction is preserved, although it is visible only to
14 Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning

comparative data from other Semitic languages, the descendants of the original
long and short forms can mostly be identified even in Biblical Hebrew.43 Fur-
thermore, thanks to an idiosyncratic Hebrew development, the narrative past
variant of the yiqtol-S is, in the vast majority of cases, recognizable through a
special form of the proclitic conjunction wə- (“and”). When appended to the nar-
rative yiqtol-S, it has an a-vowel and normally causes gemination of the first
consonant of the prefix, or, alternatively, when this is prohibited for phonologi-
cal reasons, the a is lengthened to an ā.44 This variant of the yiqtol-S is conven-
tionally glossed as wayyiqtol and is commonly treated as a verbal form in its
own right. The volitive variants of the yiqtol-S are referred to as “jussive” and
“cohortative.”45 Thus, at a maximum, the yiqtol is divided into no fewer than
four individual verbal forms: the wayyiqtol, the jussive, the cohortative, and the
imperfect. The last corresponds to yiqtol-L in the above list and is often simply
called yiqtol.
My main reasons for using the term yiqtol-S for all the three subclasses men-
tioned are the following:
First, the wayyiqtol is not the sole representative of the narrative past yiq-
tol-S. There are also a number of free-​standing yiqtol-S in the biblical corpus,
which can be identified through analysis of their textual function and/or because

a very limited degree in the consonantal script. The nature of the relationship between the Biblical
Hebrew and the Ugaritic verbal systems depends very much on how the long and the short forms
are used in past contexts in Ugaritic, which is a highly disputed question. An overview (in chrono-
logical order) of the various standpoints on the issue can be obtained from Gordon 1955, § 13:31–32;
Greenstein 1988, 13–14; Smith 1994, 39–41; Tropper 2000, § 76.341–48; Greenstein 2006, 79–91;
Bordreuil and Pardee 2009, 46; Tropper 2012, § 76.412; Hackett 2012.
43. See, however, the problem with the free-​standing declarative yiqtol-S (4.4.3).
44. There have been various attempts to explain the waC-(C)-pattern in the wayyiqtol. McFall
(1982, 217–19) provides a list of fifteen different suggestions. A few scholars believe that the proclitic
wa- has nothing to do with the conjunction wə-; some hold that it contains nothing but the conjunc-
tion and that the gemination/lengthening of the syllable arose due to stress patterns of the verb
in a pre-​Masoretic stage of the language (after McFall’s work, this view has been proposed by,
e.g., Blau 2010, 285–86); others suggest that it consists of the conjunction and some adverbial/
particle or auxiliary (for a later proposal, see Testen 1998, 190, 195–97); some have argued that it
is an artificial invention of the Masoretes (see Furuli 2006, 147–48; Van de Sande 2008, 226–32).
Wikander (2010, 265) understands the wa- as an original conjunction that has developed into a kind
of augment marking past tense.
45. The cohortative differs formally from the jussive by the ending -â (except in some weak
verbs and in verbs with object suffixes), but comparative evidence shows that this ending is appended
to the short variant of the prefix-​conjugation (see Lipiński 1997, §§39.5–11). The forerunner of the
Biblical Hebrew cohortative in Canaanite is for this reason called erweiterte jussiv by Tropper and
Vita (2010, §4.2.4; cf. the erweiterte Kurzform der Präfixkonjugation in Ugaritic [Tropper 2012,
§77.33]). See also Cook 2012, 238–41. Larcher (2012, §1.1.4) confirms the above-​mentioned findings
within the context of Arabic when he derives the so-​called énergique (the Arabic morphological
parallel to the Biblical Hebrew cohortative) from the apocopé (cf. yiqtol-S), but his classification
of the apocopé as a variant of the imparfait (cf. yiqtol-L) is confusing.
 Introduction 15

they are apocopated (4.4.3). Most of them are found in poetic texts, but there are
also a few cases in prose.
Second, the issue of this study is the semantics behind the temporal meanings
of the Biblical Hebrew verbal forms. I preclude the possibility that the volitive
meaning of the yiqtol-S lies behind its past meaning and the traces of perfect/
resultative meaning that are found in the material. If there is a common origin
(which is practically certain), the development must have gone in the opposite
direction.46
The qatal, too, is often divided into two different forms. Besides the ordi-
nary qatal, often called the “perfect,” there is the so-​called perfect consecutive,
which consists of the qatal preceded by the proclitic wə- (“and”) and is primarily
used for representing future or past habitual sequential events or for sequential
events in commands. It is glossed as either weqatal or weqataltí in the literature.
The latter variant is intended to distinguish the perfect consecutive from the past
nonhabitual and nonsequential syndetic perfect, which also consists of the wə-
plus qatal.47 The -tí ending in weqataltí indicates that the perfect consecutive has
the stress on the ultima in the first-​person singular, a feature that distinguishes
it from the ordinary qatal, which has the stress on the penultima (qatálti). The
same shift of stress occurs also in the second-​person masculine singular, but
it is not obligatory in either of them, and in certain weak forms of the verb it
never occurs.48 It cannot serve as evidence that qatal and wəqataltí are morpho-
logically distinct in Biblical Hebrew, and there is no comparative evidence that
such a distinction ever existed in earlier stages of the language. Neither does
the proclitic wə serve as a distinctive feature, since wə + qatal, as already said,
may be a past nonconsecutive perfect as well. Moreover, there are undeniable
cases of “consecutive qatal” without proclitic wə in Biblical Hebrew.49 As for
future meaning, it is well known to be expressed not only by weqataltí but also
by nonconsecutive qatal (4.3.1). Consequently, there is little reason to treat qatal

46. On the existence of typological evidence in favor of this interpretation, see 4.4.4. There are
indeed also examples of developments from volitive to past meanings, viz. the narrative imperative,
which is found in a number of Balkan languages (Friedman 2012, 417–22). For several reasons, how-
ever, this phenomenon cannot be considered as a parallel to the Biblical Hebrew yiqtol-S: (1) It is
an areal, Sprachbund-phenomenon, rather than a widespread, universal phenomenon that can be
expected to occur independently in different languages (Friedman 2012, 417, 421); (2) the impera-
tive, although volitive, does not correspond typologically to the jussive/cohortative; (3) the narrative
imperative is a stylistic device, not a default narrative form; (4) a volitive source for the Biblical
Hebrew narrative yiqtol-S cannot account for the resultative/perfect meanings of the form.
47. On the nonsequential weqatal, see Driver 1892, §132–33; Waltke and O’Connor 1990, §32.3;
Gibson and Davidson 1994, §84. Joüon and Muraoka (2009, §43) call these cases “anomalous,” but
they are too numerous to be treated as such.
48. Joüon and Muraoka 2009, §43.
49. This highly significant but surprisingly overlooked fact is further discussed in subsection
4.3.1 below.
16 Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning

and weqataltí as two different forms with different meanings. Rather, the weqa-
taltí is a qatal in a specific type of interclausal connection. Its largely divergent
temporal and modal meanings must be assumed to be pragmatically, and not
semantically, determined. Thus, when I use the gloss weqataltí in this study,
it signifies not a verbal form but the syndetic qatal with consecutive function.
Completely outside the temporal system is the imperative. However, it will
be used for contrastive studies in chapter 5 to illustrate the semantic feature of
reduced appeal, which crosscuts the whole verbal system and may be relevant
for the temporal interpretation of the other forms.

1.5. Scope

In this section, I shall comment on certain factors having to do with the scope of
the study: first, the body of data that will serve as witness to the language here
called Biblical Hebrew, and, after that, the two factors within this body of data
that often (though not in the present study) are allowed to delimit the scope of
studies of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system—namely, the diachronic diversity
of the corpus and the distinction between prose and poetry.

1.5.1. Source Material

The linguistic data for this investigation are taken from the Hebrew Bible as
it is preserved in the Masoretic tradition. A more comprehensive investigation
would broaden the scope and consider manuscripts of other textual traditions
as well as inscriptions and ostraca belonging to the same linguistic stage as the
preserved text of the Hebrew Bible. However, these witnesses have been omit-
ted for practical reasons.
The investigation of the data from the Hebrew Bible is adapted to the pur-
pose of the investigation. This is foremost a synthetic study, attempting to apply
new theory to verbal usages that have been studied by generations of gram­
marians. For the selection of examples, I have consulted Driver 1892; Waltke
and O’Connor 1990; Gibson and Davidson 1994; Joüon and Muraoka 2009; and
Joosten 2012. I have also worked with samples of continuous texts where all the
verbal forms under consideration have been checked for their tense and aspect
meanings. The samples were chosen so as to reflect the diachronic diversity of
Biblical Hebrew (Exod 15; Judg 5; Ps 18; Gen 26–29; Neh 3:33–9:37). In addi-
tion to that, I have used various computer software for searching specific uses.
The way of working has been designed to find verbal uses with relevance to the
problem of verbal semantics and temporality in Biblical Hebrew, as well as to
check and complement the established knowledge in the field. Hopefully, the
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what power was left him, after so much had been cancelled by his
idleness or stupidity. And therefore—for this was his conclusion—if
he could produce several blacks, which he was sure he could do,
who had accumulated more wealth than anyone present, then they
were better men than any of the present company. I say he was
theoretically a Negrophilist, because, although he liked the Negro, he
liked him best at a distance. In politics, he held that clever men, and
men with ideas, were the bane of the country. They had already got
their constitution and their laws. The people did not want a letter of
either altered, or anything added to either. All officers, therefore,
elected by the people, whether for the general or the local
government, were in the position of servants with written instructions.
No one would tolerate a domestic servant who, in the face of his
instructions, thought for himself; nor ought the people ever to re-elect
a public servant who acted in this way. Indeed he held that no man
should ever be re-elected, but that all public offices should be made
‘to go as far as possible’ in bringing into notice deserving young
men, and in helping them on a little, and in rewarding in a temporary
way those who had exerted themselves on behalf of their party. He
was always joking; his jokes consisting of grotesque impossibilities
and laughable exaggerations. But his unconscious and unfailing
conceit, and his assumptions of omniscience, were as ridiculous as
his jokes.
On Sunday Divine Service was celebrated in the saloon. The
service was that of the Established Church. The Germans absented
themselves. The Americans were all present, and behaved very well,
many of them making the responses audibly. The Bishop of Ontario
read the prayers, and an English clergyman preached. Some of the
Americans proposed to him that he should, as they expressed it,
‘hold another meeting’ in the evening; but it would not have been
right to drive the Germans a second time on to the deck.
 CHAPTER II.
NEW YORK—MENU AT FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL—HOW TRAVEL IN
THE STATES MAY BE ARRANGED FOR A WINTER TOUR—THE
QUEEN’S BOOK IN AMERICA—EXTERNAL APPEARANCE OF
NEW YORK—IGNORANCE OF ENGLISH IMMIGRANTS—
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS—CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY—NUMBER
OF CHURCHES—BROAD VIEWS GENERAL—A SERVICE AT THE
REV. H. W. BEECHER’S CHURCH—EPISCOPALIAN BROAD
CHURCH CLUB—CHAPELS IN POOR DISTRICTS ANNEXED TO
EPISCOPAL CHURCHES IN RICH ONES—AMERICAN CHURCHES
WORKED AT HIGH PRESSURE—AN AMERICAN DIVINE’S
OPINION OF A MINISTER’S DUTY.
During my first visit to New York I stayed at the Fifth Avenue Hotel,
which I had been told was the largest and best managed of the
monster hotels of the city. I arrived just in time for dinner. On being
shown into the dining-saloon, I found between two and three
hundred people at table. I had lately been staying at Paris at the
Grand Hôtel du Louvre, where it was thought we were treated rather
liberally in having seven plats at dinner, including two sweets, and
one cream or water ice. The ice was served in infinitesimal morsels;
and if you asked for a second morsel, it was represented by an
additional franc in your bill. With this experience of a great European
hotel fresh in my mind, a waiter in the dining saloon of the Fifth
Avenue Hotel placed in my hand the bill of fare for the dinner then
going on. Seeing almost an interminable printed list of comestibles,
and not knowing how these things were managed in America, I
supposed that this was the list of dishes the hotel undertook to
prepare; and that, had I arrived some hours earlier, and then made
my selection, what I might have ordered would have now been
ready. The menu contained turtle soup, venison, turtle steaks, soft-
shelled crabs, canvas-back ducks; in short, whatever fish, flesh, fowl,
vegetable, and fruit were then in season. But the attendant informed
me that the paper he had given me was the bill of fare for that day,
and that everything mentioned in it was then actually ready; and that
I might order whatever I pleased, and it would be immediately
brought to me. I made my selection; and while he was bringing what
I had ordered, I counted the number of dishes provided that day for
our dinner, and found that the total amounted to seventy-five.
Nothing was supplied in the scanty way in which everything was
doled out at the Grand Hôtel du Louvre; but as a general rule more
of everything was set before you than you could require: for
instance, instead of setting before you a morsel of ice-cream, a
whole mould was left with you till you ordered it to be taken away.
The next morning I found fifty-two things mentioned on the bill of fare
for breakfast. Luncheon, tea, and supper are also supplied to its
guests by this establishment. On the ground-floor are placed the bar,
the billiard-room (containing twelve tables), and a kind of after-hour
Stock Exchange, in which operations are commenced at eight
o’clock p. m. The charge for living in this palatial hotel was five
dollars a day in greenbacks; that is, about sixteen shillings, at the
then price of gold.
One frequently hears the severity of their winters
urged as a reason for not travelling in the United Menu of an
States at that season of the year. My own American Hotel.
experience of the unusually severe winter of ’67-68
would go some way towards proving that those who press this
consideration do so under a misapprehension. It is possible that by a
singular run of good luck I may have always been at a warm place
when the weather was cold elsewhere, but it is literally true that
during that winter I never once had occasion to put on an overcoat,
excepting when I was in Canada at its breaking up. I left New York
early in January; went through the South, where I gathered ripe
oranges from the trees on which they were hanging; ascended the
Mississippi; crossed the prairies and plains to the Rocky Mountains,
at the foot of which I found the thermometer, at Denver, standing at
70°; recrossed the prairies to Chicago; and during the whole of this
time, whether on foot, or in a railway car, or on or in a coach, did not
on any occasion find the weather disagreeable on account of the
cold, though I frequently found it in railway cars and in hotels very
much warmer than was agreeable. By what I have just said I do not
mean that I never fell in with weather that was thermometrically cold,
for I walked over the Mississippi on the ice at St. Louis, but that it
never felt disagreeably cold. It so happened that whenever the
thermometer was low, the air was still, and the sun bright. During this
winter it only rained twice, and never snowed but once, at the places
at which I happened to be staying. It rained once at Washington, and
once at New Orleans, and it was snowing on my return across the
prairies to Chicago. On my outward journey over them they were
entirely free from snow. Of course if I had remained during the whole
of this time at any one place in the northern part of the Union, I
should have seen some bad weather. My conclusion, however, is
that the traveller may so arrange his tour even for the winter as to be
put to very little annoyance by the cold or wet.
Everybody in New York had read the Queen’s
book; in every society I found people talking about The Queen’s
it; and I never heard it mentioned without Book in
expressions of interest and approval, always America.
uttered without any qualifications, and with
unmistakable heartiness. They said it made royalty appear to them in
a new and more human light, in which they had never regarded it
before. They spoke of her as the head of the Anglo-Saxon race,
almost as if they had as much part in her as ourselves. I believe that
her Majesty’s work has had a greater number of readers, and that a
greater number of copies of it have been sold, in the United States
than in the United Kingdom.
The exterior appearance of New York is at first disappointing. We
are accustomed to find in every capital we visit large and stately
buildings, which, as in the case of royal or imperial palaces, public
offices, and the hotels of a territorial nobility, are the results of our
own existing institutions; or, as in the case of cathedrals, churches,
town-halls, and castles, are the result of a state of things belonging
to the past history of Europe; and so when we walk through the
streets of a city larger than most European capitals, and find none of
the buildings we are in the habit of seeing everywhere else, we
condemn it as architecturally poor. This feeling is increased in New
York by the fact that there is nothing very striking in Broadway, its
main street, except its length. The shops, or stores as they are
called, are rendered externally quite ineffective by the narrowness of
their frontage, and by the way in which they are converted into an
advertising frame for names and announcements of various kinds.
When you get inside the door you find as extensive and rich an
assortment of goods as can be seen in the best shops of London or
Paris: there is, however, little indication of this from the outside. But a
better acquaintance with the city qualifies to a great extent this first
feeling of disappointment. It is irrational to condemn a place for not
having what it is impossible could ever have been there. New York
cannot have imperial palaces, or mediæval cathedrals, not even
great public offices; but in the part of the Fifth Avenue, and of the
contiguous streets, which is occupied with the residences of private
citizens, it is not surpassed by anything of the same kind in any city
of the world. Certainly Belgravia can show nothing like it. There is no
stucco, nor are the houses built, as is the case in our streets, in rows
of monotonous uniformity, but in some places each separate house
differs in design from its neighbours. Sometimes you may find three
or four that are alike, but seldom more than half a dozen; and
probably those that are alike in general design will vary in the
ornamentation of the doors and windows; thus indicating that they
are not run up to order, as in Paris, or on speculation, as in London,
but that they were built by the people who inhabit them. This variety
of façade, where nothing is mean, of course contributes very much
to the effect of street architecture. The materials, too, used for
building in New York are better and more varied than those used by
ourselves. In the best quarters a chocolate-coloured stone is the
most common. Brick, which is always painted, and dressed with
stone, comes next in frequency; then a stone which in colour is
compounded of a yellowish-white with a very perceptible trace of
green. Some of the largest stores and hotels, and occasionally a
private residence and church, are of white marble. Of this latter
material is constructed the imposing office of the New York Herald—I
suppose the most magnificent newspaper office in the world.
The great glory, however, of the city is its Park. It
is on the central ridge of the island—on very New York.
uneven ground, with the native rock everywhere
cropping up through the surface, and with many depressions, in
which are pieces of water peopled with various kinds of waterfowl; it
is between two and three miles in length, and is throughout kept in
faultless order; it has already cost the city twenty millions of dollars,
and is one of the more than imperial works of the American
democracy.
An English merchant, carrying on business at New York, and who
had for several years been the president of the St. George’s Society
of that city, and in that capacity brought very much into contact with
the English immigrants, assured me that he had often had to blush
for the ignorance of his countrymen. ‘Of all the immigrants,’ he said,
‘who came to the United States the Englishman was the least
educated, and so the most shiftless. Even the wild Irishman had
generally been better taught, and knew more.’
Among my letters of introduction for New York
was one to a gentleman who is personally and Supplementary
actively engaged in the working of some of the Schools.
most useful institutions of the city. Under his
guidance I visited and examined several of their industrial schools, in
which the children of the lowest and most vicious part of the Irish and
German population of the city are educated. Sixteen of these
schools have already been established, and are now at work. They
do not at all enter into competition with the common schools, but are
a supplement to them, occupying very much the place of our ragged
schools. They are partly supported by the city, and partly by
voluntary contributions. This is far better than that the city should
take upon itself the whole of the cost; because in that case
everything would be done by paid agents, who, as experience
proves, are seldom able to establish an influence over the classes
for whose benefit these institutions are designed; while good and
Christian people are generally to be found, who will, for love’s sake
and for the work’s sake, go among the disorderly and depraved, and
endeavour to awaken whatever dormant sparks of parental affection,
of religious sentiment, and of the sense of responsibility may remain
within them, and will thus induce them to send their children to
school. And not only will these ministers of good words, illustrated
and expounded by kindly acts, aid the regular teachers in bringing
children into the school, but also in attaching them to the place
where they were first made comfortable and happy. In all these
schools I either found ladies actually present at the time of my visit,
or heard that they were in the habit of being present almost daily.
Their chief effort is to instil into the minds of the children a good
moral and religious tone, and to bring them to feel that there are
such things in human hearts as kindliness and regard for others, and
that this kindliness and regard is being directed towards themselves.
They also generally superintend the musical instruction, for which
purpose each school is supplied with an harmonium. It is thought
that music will both attract and humanise children accustomed at
home to so much roughness and coarseness. They also teach the
girls to make their own clothes; the materials for which, in the case of
the poorest and most neglected, are given either at the cost of the
school funds, or by some of the well-wishers of the school through
these voluntary assistants. This, and meals provided two or three
times a week for the most destitute, are used as allurements by
which the most neglected children, which are precisely the cases the
managers are most desirous of getting hold of, may be brought in.
None of the children found in these schools would ever attend the
common schools—their rags and habits would alone render them
inadmissible; and it is only by such means and exertions as I have
just mentioned that they can be attracted to and fitted for the
industrial schools. I was told that notwithstanding the success I
witnessed, there was still a lower depth that could not be reached, in
which the children remained untaught in the lessons of any school
excepting that of vice.
In these matters, then, they have in the great commercial capital of
the New World, where land is a drug, and where there are
employment and food for everybody, just the same difficulties we
have to struggle against in the capital of the old country, and they
endeavour to meet them much in the same way as ourselves;
though perhaps they may set about doing what they see ought to be
done, with more system and energy than we have yet shown.
 The same gentleman also took me over the establishments of the
Children’s Aid Society. The object of this association is to collect
from the streets the newsboys, and any others who may be growing
up uncared for, and who have no prospect of being trained up to any
employment or trade by which they may gain an honest livelihood,
and by the inducement of comfortable lodgings, and some other
advantages, to get them to submit to regular habits, and to a certain
amount of instruction; and then, when they have become qualified
for such situations, to give them an outfit, and find them homes in the
farmhouses of the West. This institution was under my friend’s
superintendence. It appeared to be a very valuable one, and to be
effecting a great deal of good among a large class that could have
no other chance of being rescued from degradation, and launched
favourably into life. On each of my two visits to New York I saw a
band of healthy and hopeful-looking youths it had trained and taught,
and had just fitted out, on their way to the railroad which was to take
them to their new Western homes.
I have mentioned these industrial schools and
the Children’s Aid Society in connection with my An Old Principle
first visit to New York, because I did not meet with Resuscitated.
institutions of this kind elsewhere. I shall say
nothing about the common schools I saw here, because as I had
letters to the superintendents of schools in all the chief cities I
visited, and so had opportunities for inspecting these schools
wherever I went; and as I intend to bring into one summary the
conclusions I arrived at after an inspection of schools from New York
to Denver on the plains at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and from
Denver back again to Boston, it will be better that I should only make
separate mention of my visits to schools which appeared to possess
some peculiarity of method or object.
‘We wish everybody to have a chance, and to enjoy life. We wish
for nothing for ourselves which we should not be glad to see others
have.’ I first heard this sentiment enounced in the above words by a
gentleman whom I met in one of my visits to the Children’s Aid
Society. I afterwards heard it expressed by other persons in widely
distant parts of the Union. There is nothing new in the sentiment
itself to those who are familiar with a book for which deep reverence
is professed on both sides of the Atlantic; but I felt—perhaps I was
wrong in feeling so—that there was something new in hearing it
proclaimed as a principle of conduct, and in finding myself among
people who in their system of public education, in many of their
charities, and in other matters, distinctly acted upon it.
Few people can have visited the great and wealthy capital of the
French empire without being struck with the paucity of churches it
contains. Few can have visited New York, which is not even the
capital of the State whose name it bears, without being struck with
the opposite fact. The latter city abounds in churches, still I saw
many additional ones in course of construction. Many of these
churches have cost large sums of money, and are of good
architectural designs. As a general rule, those who minister in them
are very liberally maintained: I was astonished at hearing the amount
of the annual collections in some of them.
The clergy are allowed much freedom of expression in America. A
gentleman residing in New York, while conversing with me on this
subject, made the following statement of what he supposed was the
general practice:—‘The way in which we deal with the clergy here is
to pay them well, and to encourage them to say exactly what they
think. What we pay them for is not other people’s ideas and opinions
—that we can find in books—but their own. We expect them to
devote a reasonable portion of their time and all the mental powers
they possess to theological study, and then to give us the result.’
This broad construction of the duty of a clergyman, as a religious
teacher, coincides very much with what I was frequently told, that the
broad way of thinking was becoming the common way of thinking in
almost all the American churches. Mr. Henry Ward Beecher, though
a Presbyterian, is very broad, and never has a seat empty in his
church. Sunday after Sunday, three thousand people assemble to
hear him preach. In American society religious questions are
frequently discussed. No one feels any disposition to avoid them,
because expression of opinion is perfectly free. An American lady
once said to me across the table, and was heard by everyone
present, that ‘every thinking American was of opinion that religion, if
not in conformity with the knowledge and sentiments of the times,
was a dead thing.’ In New York this expression of opinion appeared
perfectly natural; but I suppose that if an English lady entertained
ideas of this kind, she would not think it allowable for her to
enunciate them in company.
The most celebrated preacher in America is Mr.
Henry Ward Beecher. On the subjugation of the Service at the
South he was the man selected by President Rev. H. W.
Lincoln from all the great speakers of the United Beecher’s
States to pronounce at Fort Sumter, where the war Church.
had commenced, an oration which would signalise its conclusion
with an eloquence worthy of the occasion. The three thousand
sittings his church contains, I was told, are let by auction for sums
which on this side of the water would appear fabulous. He returns his
income at 8,000l. a year. Of course I went to hear him, and through
the assistance of one of his congregation obtained a seat.
The church is very much in the form of a theatre. The stage is
occupied by Mr. Beecher himself. Over the stage, however, is a
gallery for the organ and choir. There was not, on the occasion upon
which I was present, a vacant place in the building. As one looked
down from what corresponded with the gallery of a theatre, there
appeared to be no aisles in the body of the church, because as soon
as the occupants of the pews had taken their places, seats that had
been fastened up against the outside of the pews were opened out
and instantly filled. The service commenced with the Te Deum,
chanted by a choir of ladies and gentlemen. A short prayer was then
offered. This was followed by a short lesson from the book of
Ecclesiastes, which was all that the service contained from the Holy
Scriptures. Six or seven children were now baptised. The baptismal
service consisted of several texts bearing more or less on the
subject, which were chanted by the choir, Mr. Beecher afterwards
sprinkling water upon each in the name of the Trinity. This was
succeeded by a long prayer, which was rather a thanksgiving for
domestic happiness than a prayer. A hymn was then sung, during
the singing of which very few of the vast congregation rose from their
seats. There was, of course, no kneeling during the prayers, or in
any part of the service, which was concluded with a sermon of more
than an hour’s length, taken from the few verses in Ecclesiastes that
had been previously read. The sermon was an essay on ‘the art of
making old age happy and beautiful.’ This was in connection with the
administration of the sacrament of baptism. He spoke very
eulogistically of a certain admiral, whose name I could not catch,
now residing at Brooklyn, in the neighbourhood of Mr. Beecher’s
church, and whom the preacher announced as the specimen old
man. He inveighed strongly against all forms of dissipation, on the
ground that ‘they take too much out of a man. They are,’ he said,
‘cheques drawn by youth on old age.’ He said ‘he had no objection to
balls, provided they were held in the middle of the day and in the
open air.’ He should like to see young people dancing on the green
turf in summer. But crowded rooms and late hours were prejudicial to
health.’ He thanked God that he had never used tobacco in any
form. He said, ‘the use of it was a filthy, beastly habit, wasteful of
health and of animal power.’ In speaking of excessive drinking, he
said ‘that the American had not the excuse which the Englishman
had, for the latter had so much water outside, that there was a
reason for his never taking any inside.’ This was received by the
congregation with great laughter, as were some other sallies
contained in the sermon.
According to our ideas, there was a great want
of reverence in the service. People talked—some The Rev. H. W.
who were in my hearing, of dollars and Beecher.
investments—till the service commenced. One of
the officers of the Church wore his hat till the congregation were
more than half assembled. Mr. Beecher appeared to me to have but
two tones, a very loud one and a quiet impressive one. The latter
was very much the better of the two. His manuscript was placed on a
desk on the stage. He could leave the desk with his manuscript on it
whenever he pleased; and this he frequently did. One has no right to
express an opinion of a preacher’s power after having heard only
one sermon; all, therefore, that I will say of Mr. Beecher is what I
heard said of him. I was told that his popularity never flagged, and
that his originality had hitherto proved inexhaustible; for that during
the many years he had been before the public, during which time
everything he had said had been reported, he had never been
known to repeat himself. I was also told that he had been a useful
man in calming, as far as the great influence he possessed allowed,
the storms both of religious controversy and of political animosity. It
must be remembered that a clergyman of Mr. Beecher’s energy and
talents has much more prominence and influence in America, where
there is no governing class, than it would be possible for him to
attain in England.
There is a club—perhaps we should call it a society or association
—of Episcopalian Broad Churchmen, the members of which reside
in the cities of New York and Philadelphia. I believe clergymen only
are members.
Almost every Episcopal church in New York has a chapel attached
to it, exclusively for the use of the poor. This has been done because
it has been found there, just as is the case with us, that in the cities
the poor will not use the same churches as the rich. We have in
London, in a few cases, attempted to cure the same evil with the
same remedy. The remedy, however, has not been fairly applied, for
a better class of persons (the very thing that indisposes the ill-clad
poor to be present) has been allowed to appropriate to themselves a
large proportion of the sittings in these chapels.
I will mention here a conclusion to which I was brought by my
observation of what was going on in the Episcopal Church in
different parts of the Union. Among ministers and congregations
there are, just as with us, some High Church, some Low Church,
some Ritualistic, and some Broad Church. I think the proportion of
those that are High Church is greater with them than with ourselves.
The real and important difference between us on this head is, that in
the American Church every minister and congregation belongs
distinctly to one or other of these parties, and that every Church is
worked at high pressure.
One of the leading divines of America whom I
met at New York (he was not a minister of the An American’s
Episcopal Church) remarked to me that the view Opinion of a
taken in America of a minister’s duty was, that he Minister’s Duty.
was a teacher. He occupied towards the adults of the congregation
precisely the same position that the schoolmaster held with respect
to the children. What he had to teach was the history and theory of
religion; and to show how, as a rule of life, it bore on the ever-varying
circumstances of the day. If he could not teach the people these
things he was of no use to them.
This ignores altogether that view of the service which makes it an
expression of the devotion and of the religious feelings of the
congregation itself.
 CHAPTER III.
WHY AN UNREASONABLE FANCY WAS ACTED ON—THE
HISTORY OF THE CAUSE OF AMERICAN PROGRESSIVENESS—
WHAT PASSES IN AMERICA IMPORTANT TO US—THE
NORTHERN STATES SOWN BROADCAST WITH HOUSES.
I had had good times at New York, and I was rather eagerly looking
forward to good times at Washington, and so was somewhat
disinclined to tarry on the way thither. Still I thought it would be
unwise to lose an opportunity which offered itself for seeing
something of the second city of the Union, which lay upon my route. I
therefore stopped at the place, and having secured comfortable
quarters at the best hotel (in America there is a wider difference
between the best and second-rate hotels than there is elsewhere), I
sallied forth to get some idea of the external appearance of the town.
There are occasions, it is said, when imagination overpowers our
judgment, and makes fools of us all. I now became, I suppose, an
illustration of this process. As I walked along the streets they
appeared to me distressingly straight. Their nomenclature, too, was
painfully dull and formal. This is a place, I began to think, where men
and women profess a form of virtue too exalted for ordinary mortals.
Such a city as this appears to be, must be inhabited by people who
are not so human as to err, nor so divine as to forgive. If I had not
been alone, it would probably have been impossible for so
groundless a fancy to have taken possession of my mind. Still I was
rational enough, when I had finished my breakfast the next morning,
to think of delivering some of my letters of introduction. It seemed
best to begin with one addressed to a gentleman whose official
position need not now be mentioned. On finding the house I was in
search of, I sent in my letter. The gentleman was not himself at
home, but his wife opened the letter, and sent out to say that she
would see me. I have not the slightest idea that she had any thought
of being rude or discourteous. If so, I should not say anything about
what passed; for then it would have been the only instance of
discourtesy I met with in my travels through the United States, and a
single instance of discourtesy would be obliterated by the
recollection of helpfulness and kindness everywhere else. It was,
however, an instance of precisely what my fancy had been
suggesting of the kind of virtue which would be the natural growth of
the place. ‘Sir,’ said the lady, without asking me to be seated, or
taking a seat herself, and in a tone and with a manner which
proclaimed that she belonged to the order of beings who cannot err,
and who regard the disposition to forgive as one of the weaknesses
of ordinary mortals: ‘Sir, I will not attempt to conceal from you that
our feelings are completely changed towards Englishmen. Formerly
we used to think that England was always on the side of right. But
since we found that, during the late war, she sided with the South,
our opinion of England has been reversed; and the reversal of our
feelings has accompanied the reversal of our opinion.’
‘Madam,’ I replied, ‘it is true that there were
many in England who felt towards the South, just How a Fanciful
as the schoolboy feels, while he reads Homer’s Idea was
“Iliad,” about Hector, when he finds him battling Confirmed.
manfully against destiny and a host of heroes. His
sympathies, if he has any generosity in his character, are naturally
enlisted on behalf of the brave man who is acquitting himself so well,
and who must in the end he overwhelmed.’
With these two little speeches the brief interview ended. For the
moment my fancies seemed hard and established facts. What could
I gain by remaining longer in such a place?—and so I left it by the
first train.
People look upon the progressiveness and enterprise of the
Americans as if it were something sui generis. This, however, is a
mistake; the difference is only one of degree, and not of kind. The
character of the American, just like every other product, whether in
external nature or in man, is the result of a chain of precedent
events. In his case the links of this chain can be traced back to dates
and events long anterior to the dawn of history, or even to the twilight
of tradition, but which, thanks to modern science, are not altogether
irrecoverable. Philology reveals to us that race of mankind to which
the American belongs, seated at a very remote date somewhere in
Central Asia. As there is no ground for supposing that it came from
the South, which was occupied by another and very different branch
of the human family, or from the West or the North, for reasons with
which the philologist and ethnologist will be familiar, we must
conclude that if it had not sprung from the soil, it must have come
from a more distant east. If then the Aryans of Central Asia had been
the product of a migration, of course only those had come who had
had the enterprise and the hardihood to go in quest of a new home.
This then was the spirit which presided over the race at its birth, and
launched it upon its long career. Again and again—we know not how
often, for the records of history had not yet begun—the same
process must have been repeated. Of this hardy and enterprising
race, the most hardy and enterprising again renewed their westward
movement. All the while the characteristics of the advancing race
were being confirmed and strengthened; the infirm and feeble in
body or purpose were ever being left behind, and the primeval and
now hereditary impulse to move on at all risks was becoming in
those who from time to time sought new homes an ever-
strengthening instinct. At last—and this is when ordinary history first
takes cognisance of them—we find them settled on the southern and
northern shores of the Baltic.
After a time the day arrives for another
movement, for another winnowing and sifting, far The Cause of
more searching than any of the previous ones. American
Greater hardihood and enterprise are needed than Progressivenes
were ever called for in any of their past s.
movements. The sea has now to be crossed—a new form of danger
to be confronted. Those who venture in their open and half-open
boats on this great enterprise, to establish a new home for
themselves on the other side of the storm-swept waste of waters,
must be men who know no fear, and in whom the instinct of moving
onward is irrepressible. The result of this supreme effort is the great
English nation—the product of all that is best in Angles, Jutes,
Saxons, Danes, and Northmen. Such was the long process by which
the men were formed who fought at Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt; at
Blenheim, and Ramilies, and Malplaquet; at Trafalgar, and at
Waterloo; on the Ganges, the Nile, and the St. Lawrence; who
produced a Bacon, a Shakespeare, and a Newton; who first tried
men by their peers, and first governed themselves by their
representatives; who broke the papal yoke, and established freedom
of religion, of speech, of the press, and of commerce. In their little
island they proved themselves the grandest race the world had seen.
But the great drama was not yet complete. The original impulse
had ever been gaining strength, and now appeared to culminate. But
it was not so. One more effort had to be made. In grandeur and
hardihood it transcended all that had yet been achieved. Not a
narrow sea, but the broad Atlantic had to be crossed; not a small
island, but a new world had to be occupied. The English race must
itself be sifted, and none but those who have nerve as firm as that of
the Pilgrim Fathers, and the most active instinct of progression, can
take part in this mighty enterprise. And so it comes to pass that
America is peopled with that which is most enterprising and
progressive in that race in which these qualities had been most
highly developed. In these respects she receives the cream of the
cream, the purest selection of that which was most select.
The long series is now completed. The circuit of the world has
been made. The hardy, the inventive, the go-ahead American looks
out on the Pacific and towards that side of the old continent from
which his first ancestors started on the long career which in his
person is now consummated.
The like of this has not been done by any other race of men, or in
any other part of the world. In human history it is something quite
unique. It is the main stream in the history of man. All other series of
events—as, for instance, that which resulted in the culture of mind in
Greece, and that which resulted in the empire of Rome—only appear
to have purpose and value when viewed in connection with it, or
rather as subsidiary to it. Their true place in history is that of affluents
to this main stream. And even Christianity itself, which so loudly
proclaims its indifference to all national or ethnological distinctions,
and its equal regard for every branch of the human family, while it
has been rejected by the race to which it was first revealed, has
become to the more advanced parts of the Teutonic race, in a
greater degree than to any other people, their educator and their
strength.
A moment’s comparison of the tone in which we write and speak
about America with the tone in which we write and speak about other
countries, and of the feelings with which we regard what is passing
there with the feelings with which we regard what is passing
elsewhere, will show that we look upon American events as fraught
with a greater amount of good and of evil to ourselves, than what is
happening in all the world besides. Much, for instance, has of late
been said and written about what is called the resurrection of Italy,
but who expects from that resurrection anything that will affect either
the hopes or the fears of mankind? Everybody, however, feels that
the future of humanity will be greatly influenced by, and in no small
degree depend upon, what is going on in America. Or if we turn to
that country which has hitherto been more influential than any other
in disturbing, or, which it claims as its right, of directing the course of
events on the Continent of Europe, we do not find any causes now in
operation which we can suppose likely to result in improving the
material circumstances of the French petty proprietors, that is, of the
bulk of the French nation, or in giving them more freedom and
intellectual energy than they at present possess. The form and
character of their government, their church, the division of property
that obtains among them, the accepted arrangements and spirit of
society, all tend to immobility. In America everyone understands that
the stream is all the other way. Mental activity is universal. Public
opinion is the opinion of those who in the open arena of public
discussion are able to influence the greatest number; and public
opinion sweeps away every obstruction.
The aspect of the country between Philadelphia
and Baltimore took me very much by surprise, as I The Northern
suppose it would anyone whose previous travels States sown
had been confined to Europe. I had imagined that with Houses.
old and densely peopled countries, like England
and France, must necessarily present to the eye of the traveller an
appearance of their being more closely inhabited than a new country
like America. But the very reverse of this is the case, and most
strikingly so. All the way from Philadelphia to Baltimore I found the
country sown with houses. This arises from the fact that every 100 or
150 acres belong to a separate proprietor (large estates being
unknown) who has his house upon his small farm, which he
cultivates with his own hands and the assistance of his family. As far
as the eye can range over the country you see these white
farmhouses. And you may now see them all the way from New York
to Omaha on the Missouri, 500 miles beyond Chicago, and 1,500
from New York. The traveller in the United States generally derives
his idea of the wealth of the people from what he sees in the towns.
The rapidity of their growth, the amount of business done in them,
the dimensions of their shops, the goodly appearance of the houses
of their merchants, justify him in supposing that the Americans are a
very wealthy people. But all this wealth of the towns is in fact only a
measure of the wealth of the country. The towns become wealthy
and flourishing in proportion to the wealth of the country. These tens
of myriads, then, of farmhouses, each of which is evidently the home
of a well-to-do family, and of which one is never out of sight in the
settled districts of the North, are the truest and most interesting
indications of the nature and of the amount of the riches of the
United States.
 CHAPTER IV.
THE LOCOMOTIVE IN THE STREETS—IN BALTIMORE PUBLIC
OPINION FIRST BECOMES SOUTHERN—GROWTH AND
PROSPECTS OF BALTIMORE—ON TRADING POLITICIANS AND
ILL WILL TO ENGLAND—WHY AN AMERICAN TUTOR THOUGHT
NECESSARY FOR AN ENGLISHMAN—REPUDIATION—THE
MASSES AND MIDDLE CLASSES IN FAVOUR OF IT—
ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF IT—AN ARGUMENT USED 2,000
MILES FROM WALL STREET—WHY REPUBLICANS BOUND TO
REPUDIATE—AMERICANS ADDICTED TO ABSTRACT
REASONING—INSTANCES.
We very often find a difficulty in getting our horses to take quietly the
sound of a railway train in motion. It was at Baltimore that I first saw
the locomotive dragging a train along the main street of a city. All the
precaution that was taken was merely to ring a bell on the top of the
engine to warn foot-passengers and drivers of carriages. Many
horses were passed, and many crossed the moving train, but I did
not observe that in any instance they took the least notice of it. I
afterwards saw the same arrangement at Chicago, at New York, and
at many other places, and did not anywhere hear that accidents
resulted from it.
Baltimore was the first place in which I found the
general sentiment strongly Southern. Balls and A Marylander’s
bazaars were being got up, while I was there, for Opinion of
the openly avowed purpose of collecting funds to Government.
support those families in the South which had been
reduced to poverty by the late war. This made me feel as if I were
among another people; for in the North I had heard the South
spoken of very vindictively, as ‘that they needed more suffering to
take their pride out of them;’ and ‘that nothing could be done with the
South till the present proprietors had all been swept away, and
Northern men substituted for them.’ I am not aware, however, that I