Tense Interpretations of Qatal Forms in Biblical Hebrew：in the Light of Passé Composé and Passé Simple in Modern French

Abstract: Tense interpretations of qatal forms in narratives and dialogues in Biblical Hebrew are different. The tense of qatal forms is interpreted in many ways. A basic tense of action verbs is preterite in narratives, but in dialogues, on the other hand, a basic tense seems to be present when we interpret qatal forms in the light of English verb system by taking a character's state of mind into consideration. In order to understand tense of a qatal forms better, in this paper, French translations are refered to by comparing two French "past" forms, passé composé and passé simple. Verb systems are different from languages to languages, so if we compare so-called "past tenses" in English and French, they are different from each other and as a result, the translations and tense interpretations can be different.