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  • The Verbal System of the Aramaic of Daniel: An Explanation in the Context of Grammaticalization
  • Na'ama Pat-El
The Verbal System of the Aramaic of Daniel: An Explanation in the Context of Grammaticalization. By Tarsee Li. SAIS 8 Pp. xvi + 197. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2009. Cloth, €89.$132.00.

This book examines the verbal system of Daniel in light of grammaticalization theory. The book contains ten chapters. The first chapter is a short introduction to the methodology underlying the current discussion with basic references to general linguistic literature. Grammaticalization is briefly explained to the uninitiated with several short sections on its major concepts: unidirectionality, layering and reanalysis, and generalization. For each such section, an illustrative example is given, largely from non-Semitic languages. Li leaves the review of most of the secondary literature to the relevant chapters, rather than collectively reviewing them in the introduction. He further outlines his approach and presuppositions, and finally under the subsection "Issues of Date and Provenance" briefly discusses some secondary literature but offers neither date nor provenance for the book of Daniel.

Chapter 2 deals with the suffix conjugation, the most frequently occurring finite form in Daniel. Li examines a number of possible functions and concludes that its main function is simple past, though earlier functions are still observable. [End Page 388]

Chapter 3 covers the functions of the active participle, which Li defines as a verbal noun (p. 43), although the term "verbal adjective" is more accurate functionally and historically. Li suggests that the participle is an imperfective that arose from the progressive. Unfortunately, except noting that it is a known phenomenon in other languages (though he does not supply examples), there is no attempt to prove such a process in this dialect. Chapter 4 examines "non-active participles," but in the introduction to the chapter, Li uses "so-called passive participles" (p. 59, in the rest of the chapter, the term passive participle is used with no further qualification). Passive voice and passive meaning are used interchangeably (pp. 70-71) although verbs can express passive meaning without being grammatically passive. Li further ignores the syntax of the passive in his discussion (typically, the subject of a passive verb is the patient, and the verb normally does not allow the expression of a direct object).

Chapter 5 deals with verbal periphrasis where a participle is dependent on ʿiṯay or ✓ hwy. Li argues that this combination has already been grammaticalized as an imperfect "at the stage of the language attested in the corpus"; however, in the same paragraph, he claims that the textual evidence points to "the early stages of grammaticalization." Li distinguishes between PTCL + AUX versus AUX + PTCL, but does not discuss the difference between ✓ hwy and ʿiṯay (e.g., ʿiṯay is not marked for tense), which may explain why the latter is not used as part of the verbal inflection (see Li's explanation on p. 97). Note also that in Syriac and other late and modern dialects, ✓ hwy is used to mark tense on ʿiṯay much like it does with verbs. In short, the syntax of ʿiṯay and ✓ hwy requires a separate discussion of each.

Chapter 6 covers the functions of the prefix conjugation. Most of this chapter concentrates on a variety of modal functions. One of the interesting functions of the Biblical Aramaic imperfect is its past tense function (e.g., Dan 7:10). Li offers a brief discussion (pp. 103-104), but seems to assume that since *yaqtul and *yaqtulu are no longer distinct morphological forms, the historical reality of a preterite *yaqtul in Aramaic is not certain (p. 99). He concludes that this form is still in the process of acquiring modality (p. 128), even though most of the modal functions noted in this chapter are well attested in other Semitic languages.

Chapter 7 examines the imperative, and the infinitive is taken up in chapter 8. Both are very short chapters detailing the evidence and categorizing it into well-known categories. In chapter 9, the author seeks to provide Aramaic evidence for the "cline," a concept in grammaticalization theory, which assumes that change occurs in a predictable direction from...

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