Re: starting a sentence with and

CDB set the following eddies spiralling through the space-time continuum:

I have dim memories of something called the "waw-conversive"*.
Without going into the details, because I can't, I remember being told
that the effect of starting an utterance with "ve" (and), in the
Hebrew of Genesis, was to shift the aspect of the verb from perfect to
imperfect, or the reverse. "And there was light" is "vayehi 'or",
with the verb in the imperfect aspect: therefore we are to read the
words as if they were in the perfect, as meaning that light appeared
suddenly and definitively.

That's probably why the "and"s disappeared in the revision, and why
it's risky to refer to foreign languages for examples of English
usage.
.
*Dare I say at this point that there is a wikiparticle on the subject?
They call it the "waw of reversal", but it seems to be the same thing
they tried to din into me back then.

They don't seem very clear on the concept of aspects, referring to the
perfect and imperfect as tenses. They are that in modern Hebrew
(perfect for past tense, imperfect for future tense, present pariciple
for present tense), but I don't remember hearing that the imperfect
referred only to the future in Biblical Hebrew. And God knew that I
am no expert, however.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waw-consecutive

My Hebrew grammar ("Teach Yourself Biblical Hebrew" calls
it "waw-consecutive" and stresses that it can only be used if no other
words come between the verbs. Under these circumstances the verbs are
prefixed with waw and are in the "opposite" form (perfect with imperfect
meaning or imperfect with perfect meaning).

Once there has been anything else, even a direct object, between the verbs,
waw-consecutive is no longer applicable and the next verb must be in
the "correct" (perfect or imperfect) form.

KJV English tends to follow Hebrew usage a bit too literally. Contemporary
English usage (e.g. Spenser or Shakespeare) will have a notable lack of
sentences beginning with "And". Presumably the Revisers sought to rephrase
everything in contemporary English.
--
ξ:) Proud to be curly

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