Karl, you wrote:
Other than the verb “to be”, does any language have stative verbs?
I'll start here, because this seems to be the root of your misunderstanding, although I suspect you have an agenda, which is you just don't want to entertain the notion of stative verbs in BH.
Here are a just a few statives from off the top of my head:
He burned with jealousy. "
burn" here is stative
I got anxious. "
got" is stative here.
She melted with fear. "
melted" is stative here.
Her heart sank. "sank" is stative here.
"But we are not of those who
shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." Heb 10:39. "
Shrink back" is stative here.
When I read your reply, my head exploded. "
exploded" here is stative.
Swahili:
Nimefika, I have arrived - stative. In Swahili, a stative verb is not only stative in meaning, it also has a stative suffix. Statives are unambiguous in Swahili, and I suspect in most Bantu languages as well.
French:
je me suis fâché, I got angry. "se fâcher" is a stative verb. Side note: French likes to use reflexive (so-called pronominal verbs) verbs to express a state.
I don’t think that “to be” followed by an adjective together make a stative verb
Correct, the whole phrase is stative. When translating a stative into English it is easier to use a be+adjective phrase because in English this is the easiest and most common way to express a state. BH on the other hand almost never uses an adjective that way.
In Hebrew, one of the languages where the use of the verb “to be” in a sentence was optional, how does that change an adjective into a verb?
A verb can be nominalized. A noun can be verbalized. So why can't an adjective be verbalized? It's easy to see that
qaton in hebrew was an adjective primarily before its usage as a verb. Largely because, its adjectival meaning is primarily concrete (small), but its verbal usage is abstract.
Here are some examples:
קָטֹ֜נְתִּי מִכֹּ֤ל הַחֲסָדִים֙ וּמִכָּל־ הָ֣אֱמֶ֔ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשִׂ֖יתָ אֶת־ עַבְדֶּ֑ךָ — Gen 32:10. About as stative as a verb CAN be.
While we're in Gen 32, I see three other statives:
1.
וַיִּירָ֧א יַעֲקֹ֛ב מְאֹ֖ד וַיֵּ֣צֶר לֹ֑ו — v7. Both verbs are stative here. Lit. he was afraid and it was distressing to him.
2.
וַתַּעֲבֹ֥ר הַמִּנְחָ֖ה עַל־ פָּנָ֑יו — v21. the present is not performing an action
Back to examples of
qaton:
וַתִּקְטַן֩ ע֨וֹד זֹ֤את — 2 Samuel 7:19
וַתִּקְטַ֨ן זֹ֤את בְּעֵינֶ֙יךָ֙ — 1 Chronicles 17:17
Did Biblical Hebrew have a term for “to hear”?
Irrelevant as to whether there are stative verbs in BH.
The verb שמע refers to active listening. Knowing is acquired and held, active.
Not in Gen 3:8,
וַֽיִּשְׁמְע֞וּ אֶת־ קֹ֨ול יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהִ֛ים מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ בַּגָּ֖ן, or Gen 3:10, Amos 8:11, Deut 4:33, 1 Samuel 14:27, Job 15:8, Exodus 4:31, etc...
if knowing were stative, how could it have an imperative
Do not be afraid. Stative and imperative.
Even sleeping is an act, not something imposed upon a person with him being completely passive.
A stative often involves the subject. That's why it can be expressed with a reflexive verb in French.