(Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 2016) Andrason, Alexander
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This paper provides a dynamic (i.e. cognitive, typological and grammaticalization driven) analysis of short yiqtol in
Biblical Hebrew. The author argues that short yiqtol can be understood as a coherent
construction if it is modeled as a wave – a synchronic two-dimensional map whose
components are related cognitively (as visualized by the x axis) and specified for their
degree of prototypicality (as visualized by the y axis). The evidence demonstrates that
short yiqtol should be classified as a gram that travels a modal-contamination path. Its
contamination originated in a deontic context of speaker modality (both affirmative and
negative), subsequently extended to subordinate uses (goal) and future values (first in
apodoses and next in other syntactic environments). In Biblical Hebrew, the zone of
prototypicality includes deontic senses. The value of goal constitutes the secondary peak
of prototypicality. The sense of futurity is non-prototypical.