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In:Language Contact, Continuity and Change in the Genesis of Modern Hebrew
Edited by Edit Doron, Malka Rappaport Hovav, Yael Reshef and Moshe Taube
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 256] 2019
► pp. 117–142

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Why did the future form of the verb displace the imperative form in the informal register of Modern Hebrew?

 | Tel Aviv University
Published online: 18 September 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.256.05ari
This paper addresses a phenomenon in colloquial Modern Hebrew: the use of the future form of the verb rather than the imperative form to convey a command. In Biblical Hebrew both forms are used to convey commands, but in Modern Hebrew the use of the future form of the verb to express commands is confined to the informal register. The distribution of the forms in Biblical Hebrew and in Modern Hebrew is shown to be dramatically different. This suggests that the phenomenon in Modern Hebrew does not have its roots in Biblical Hebrew. Further historical survey indicates that it is a relatively new development. From this historical survey I conclude that the use of the future to express a command in Modern Hebrew has its roots in Rabbinic Hebrew of the 18th and 19th centuries and that the underlying factors which brought this situation about are a process of what is sometimes called ‘insubordination’ and system simplification.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The relevant morphological forms of the verbal system
  • 3.The distribution of the forms in Modern Hebrew
    • 3.1Examples of the phenomenon
    • 3.2Phonetic realizations
    • 3.3The distribution in MH is not pragmatically determined
  • 4.The distribution of the forms in other stages of Hebrew
    • 4.1Biblical Hebrew
    • 4.2The Judean desert documents, Mishnaic Hebrew and language of the Jewish prayer
    • 4.3The Hebrew of the intermediate era
    • 4.4Wills and ethical writings of the 18th and 19th centuries
    • 4.5Insubordination and language contact
  • 5.Proposed mechanisms underlying the shift
    • 5.1Simplification of the system
    • 5.2Insubordination of subordinate forms
    • 5.3Regularity and contrast
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
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