--- title: "Toward the Ocean of the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System — Andrason 2015" description: "The paper lifts the author's semantic-map approach from single verb forms to the whole system. 32 references." authors: ["Alexander Andrason"] year: 2015 venue: "Folia Orientalia" source: "https://wydawnictwo.pan.pl/index.php/fo/article/view/7021" licence: "CC BY (per OpenAlex/publisher; Folia Orientalia)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/andrason-2026-toward-ocean-biblical-hebrew-verbal/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/andrason-2026-toward-ocean-biblical-hebrew-verbal/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2015](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2015/page/3/) / Toward the Ocean of the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System # Toward the Ocean of the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System **Authors:** [Alexander Andrason](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/alexander-andrason/) · **Year:** 2015 (Folia Orientalia 52; the catalogue gives 2026, the date it was indexed) · **Venue:** Folia Orientalia 52, 15 ff. **Link:** [wydawnictwo.pan.pl/index.php/fo/article/view/7021](https://wydawnictwo.pan.pl/index.php/fo/article/view/7021) · **Licence:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) [**0** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W7215154603) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 · [Folia Orientalia](https://openalex.org/S4306510657) · [licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) - [Publisher's page](https://wydawnictwo.pan.pl/index.php/fo/article/view/7021) - [PDF](https://wydawnictwo.pan.pl/index.php/fo/article/download/7021/5835) - [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W7215154603) **Authors (1)** 1. [Alexander Andrason](https://openalex.org/A5025732228) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8507-9824) · h 14 · 753 citations · 185 works Citations and author metrics: OpenAlex, 2026-10-14; authors with the same name are not always told apart. ## What it is about The paper lifts the author's semantic-map approach from single verb forms to the whole system. Each form is placed on a cross-linguistic grammaticalization path, with its senses weighted by frequency ("waves"): qatal and wayyiqtol on the resultative path (resultative → perfect → perfective past), yiqtol (ongoing → habitual → future → modal) and the participle qotel (ongoing → habitual → future) on the imperfective path, and weqatal (non-modal → semi-modal → modal) and short yiqtol, the jussive (semi-modal → modal), on the modal-contamination path. The two forms on each path are combined into a "current" whose peaks show the semantic domains that the pair covers: taxis and perfective past for the resultative current, habitual and future for the imperfective, semi-modal and modal for the modal one; the three currents together form the system, the "ocean". The paper is programmatic, with figures but no new counts, and the author calls it a first step. ## Ideas - I2. Present the verb system in the manual as three pairs on three paths (qatal/wayyiqtol, yiqtol/qotel, weqatal/jussive), with Torah counts for each form, as one of the views in the aspect–tense debate. ## For Mova - I1. Use the paper's six path statements as the default sense order for each form when Mova glosses a verb: try the senses in path order and let context choose (e.g. yiqtol: ongoing in a participle-like context, habitual in a past-iterative chain, future in speech, modal after a volitive or in a command). The order gives a deterministic tie-break that can be explained. I1 is a rule order for verb glosses in the Torah dictionary's examples and for the tense of events in the world read from the trees; it pairs with I2 of the Andrason 2017 card (`hbo-2026-andrason-against-binarism-simplicity-neatness-stasis`), which supplies the frequencies. I2 is text for [languages/hbo/06-verb.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/06-verb/) (the aspect–tense debate). No measurement in the paper itself. Topics[Hebrew & Aramaic](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/hebrew-aramaic/) · [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) ## Cite Cite as Alexander Andrason. 2015. Toward the Ocean of the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System. Folia Orientalia. The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{andrason2015toward, title = {{Toward the Ocean of the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System}}, author = {Alexander Andrason}, booktitle = {Folia Orientalia}, year = {2015}, url = {https://wydawnictwo.pan.pl/index.php/fo/article/view/7021} } ``` - [← previous The Translation of Quotative Frames in the Hebrew Bible](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/miller-naude-2026-translation-quotative-frames-hebrew-bible/) - [↑ back to papers of 2015](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2015/page/3/) ## References 32 references, 4 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Andersen, D., 2000. The Evolution of the Hebrew Verbal System. Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 13/1. 1–66. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Andersen%2C+D%2E%2C+2000%2E+The+Evolution+of+the+Hebrew+Verbal+System%2E+Zeitschrift+f%C3%BCr+Althebraistik+13%2F1%2E+1%E2%80%9366%2E) 2. Andrason, A. 2010. The panchronic yiqtol. Functionally consistent and cognitively plausible. Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10/10. 1–63. [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/andrason-2010-panchronic-yiqtol-functionally-consistent-cognitively/) 3. Andrason, A. 2011a. The Biblical Hebrew Wayyiqtol – a dynamic definition. Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 11/7. 1–50. [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/andrason-2011-biblical-hebrew-wayyiqtol-dynamic-definition/) 4. Andrason, A. 2011b. The BH weqatal. A homogenous form with no haphazard functions. Part 1. Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 37/2. 1–25. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Andrason%2C+A%2E+2011b%2E+The+BH+weqatal%2E+A+homogenous+form+with+no+haphazard+functions%2E+Part+1%2E+Journal+of+Northwest+Semitic+Languages+37%2F2%2E+1%E2%80%9325%2E) 5. Andrason, A. 2011c. The Biblical Hebrew verbal system in light of grammaticalization – the second generation. Hebrew Studies 52. 19–53. 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