ABSTRACT
Language and time The ten se stru ctu re o f y o u r la n gua ge a ffects y o u r sense o f t im e; la n gua ge crea tes y o u r world.
§29 Hebrew time W hy is it that only verbs bear tenses ? Why
don’t nouns keep time ? W hy not mark ideas, objects or persons with past, present or future existence, irrespective of their predicated ac tions ? Perhaps it is only natural that actionsdesignated by verbs-are the vehicles of time. We conscious beings feel ourselves to be eternal, and so we take it for granted that past, present and future are linked not to us as entities, but to what we have done, are doing, or will do as agents. Events define time, so verbs house tense. Nouns, like we who speak them, are timeless, and so nouns need no tense.
