Page:Introductory Hebrew Grammar- Hebrew Syntax (1902).djvu/87

 THE CONVERSIVE TENSES. PERF. AND IMPF. WITH STRONG VAV

§ 46. The conversive tenses seem the result of two things: first, the feeling of the connexion of two actions, and that the second belongs to the sphere of the first, a connexion expressed by vav; and, second, that effort of the lively imagination already noticed under the simple tense-forms (§ 41 b, § 45, R. 2, 3), by which an impf. is interjected among perfs., and conversely, a perf. among impfs. These lively transportations of the imagination, which appear only occasionally in the case of the simple tenses, have in this instance given rise to two distinct fixed tense-expressions, the ''vav conv. impf. and the vav conv. perf.'' In usage the former has become the historical or narrative tense, and the latter the usual expression for the fut. or freq. when connected with preceding context by and. The actual genesis of these two tense-forms belongs, however, to a period lying behind the present state of the language. They are now virtually simple forms, having the meaning of the preceding tenses, impf. or perf., and it is doubtful if it is legitimate to analyse them, and treat vav impf. for ex. as and with an impf. in any of the senses which it might have if standing alone. — It is the shortened forms of impf. that are usually employed with vav, when these exist; but this is by no means universal.

IMPERFECT WITH STRONG VAV. VAV CONV. IMPF.

§ 47. ''Vav conv. impf.'' follows a simple perf. in any of the senses of the perf. In usage, however, it has become a tense-form in these meanings of the perf. in narrative style, though no perf. immediately precedes. If the connexion of vav and impf. be broken through anything such as a neg. or other word coming between, the discourse returns to the