If
Conditional Sentences in Contemporary Hebrew, Structure, Meaning, and Usage of Tenses
Tali Bar
The book deals with Contemporary Hebrew Conditional Sentences, classified from a structural point of view.
The Hebrew language is rich in conditional expressions, simple and complex. Conditionality is expressed there by various means, specific conjunctions on the one hand, and negators and adverbial subordinators on the other hand. Conditional sentences are among the most complicated of structures. They contain a great variety of subtlety of nuances; some constructions are transparent, in which the condition is expressed in typical patterns, and in others the conditional meaning is implied from the context. The tense and mood system there, characterized by complex tenses and by shifting to the past, is different from that found elsewhere. These issues are discussed here.
The book is aimed and intended to introduce the structural, semantic, contextual, and stylistic aspects of the Present-Day Hebrew Conditionals. It provides a short presentation of their logical aspect without being sidetracked to areas irrelevant to the linguistic discussion, and it clarifies their boundaries as a linguistic category. The description and conclusions are based on evidence taken from a wide and diverse corpus, which gives a comprehensive coverage of the language. Dealing with conditionality, the author also briefly discusses some other important traits of the language, such as the modal usage of the Hebrew infinitive; the relation between coordination and subordination and general features of the Hebrew tense system.
ISBN 9783895867002. LINCOM Studies in Afroasiatic Linguistics 12.130pp. 2003.
