Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- modal morphology summary

Yes, this went up Wednesday night instead of Thursday morning. 
My computer has decided to test my patience and I wanted you to get your fix if it went the limit.

Time for a summary on modal morphologies.  Go back and learn this material thoroughly so that when you come across one, you can think back to what I said. 

1.               They are restricted to material transmitted in the vernacular that was used before the  Babylonian Captivity, in the meanings that I discuss here.  The surviving modals changed in meaning.

2.               Uncertainty epistemics frequently involve legal issues that hinge on ignorance, so even if they are used in a commandment, they may let the subject off from being punished.

3.               Certainty epistemics always involve something palpable or visible to the audience or familiar from its cultural practices or historical knowledge and that is why they relate to the truth of the material.

4.               Deontics always evidence that the world isn’t the way the speaker wants it, even as they express what he does want. 

5.               Oblique modality requires a main clause expressing something accepted as true by both speaker and listener; the subordinate clause expresses something the speaker wants to be accepted as true, given the truth of the main clause. 

 

We’re not done yet.  I have to cover an important structure in Biblical  Hebrew; that’s next.

 

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