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# The Verbal System of Classical Hebrew in the Joseph Story: An Approach from Discourse Analysis

**Authors:** Yoshinobu Endo · **Year:** 1993 · **Venue:** Tyndale Bulletin 44.2 (thesis summary; PhD Bristol 1993) **Link:** [doi.org/10.53751/001c.30468](https://doi.org/10.53751/001c.30468) · library `hbo-1993-endo-verbal-system-classical-hebrew-joseph` · **Licence:** free to read, no CC licence — summary only

[**1** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W4252516657) openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14[Tyndale Bulletin](https://openalex.org/S98946164)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.53751/001c.30468)
- [PDF](https://tyndalebulletin.org/article/30468.pdf)
- [DOI 10.53751/001c.30468](https://doi.org/10.53751/001c.30468)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W4252516657)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Yoshinobu Endo](https://openalex.org/A5032167890) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/103086369) · h 1 · 25 citations · 13 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex-snapshot (2026-10-14); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

A four-page summary of a thesis on the verb forms of Genesis 37–50, with direct speech studied first and narrative after. Endo finds that the position of the verb (clause-initial or after a fronted constituent) does not change the meaning of qatal or yiqtol; fronting marks topic switch or prominence. Qatal is past/complete and yiqtol non-past/incomplete when they stand free. The decisive opposition between wayyiqtol and qatal, weqatal and yiqtol, weqatal and the volitives is *sequential* versus *non-sequential*: the sequential form carries the flow forward, the non-sequential one makes a pause. Background versus foreground is, for him, a by-product of this, not the cause. In subordinate clauses the tense is chosen from the viewpoint of the main-clause participant, not the narrator.

## Ideas

- I1. Pair every finite verb form with its "sequential partner" by time sphere: past (qatal | wayyiqtol), non-past (yiqtol | weqatal), hortatory (imperative/jussive/cohortative | weqatal); write the three pairs as one table in the verb chapter.
- I2. Treat a non-sequential form inside a wayyiqtol chain as a *pause* (a clause-boundary signal), not automatically as background; measure how often a pause in the Torah trees falls at a Masoretic paragraph mark (petuchah/setumah) or before a speech frame.
- I3. Read fronting before qatal/yiqtol as topic switch: check on Genesis 37–50 whether the fronted subject differs from the previous clause's subject more often than chance.
- I4. Relative-tense rule: in clauses after טֶרֶם / עַד the form is non-past (yiqtol), after אַחֲרֵי past (qatal), because time is counted from the main participant; count these in the Torah as a check.

## For Mova

I1 and I4 go into [The verb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/06-verb/) (the aspect–tense debate and the forms). I2 and I3 are measures for `tools/macula` on MISC `Type` and the subject (`nsubj`) of adjacent clauses, and I2 can feed `close-qatal` / `close-offline` in `src/prag.rs` and the paragraph section of `09-discourse.md`.

Topics: [Discourse analysis](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/topics/discourse-analysis/)

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.53751/001c.30468](https://doi.org/10.53751/001c.30468)

```
@article{endo1993verbal,
  title = {{The Verbal System of Classical Hebrew in the Joseph Story: An Approach from Discourse Analysis}},
  author = {Endo, Yoshinobu},
  journal = {Tyndale Bulletin},
  year = {1993},
  doi = {10.53751/001c.30468},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.53751/001c.30468}
}
```

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