Bleached Verbs as Aspectual Auxiliaries in Colloquial Modern Hebrew and Arabic Dialects

Abstract

Verbal inflections in Classical Hebrew and Arabic encode aspectual information such as perfective and imperfective. In modern Arabic dialects, an aspectual system has evolved through the auxiliary usage of bleached verbs, replacing the older system of aspectual inflections. Arguably, a similar process in which bleached verbs acquire aspectual use is now evolving in Colloquial Modern Hebrew. The article discusses the functions of the bleached verbs ‘sit’ and ‘come’ in Colloquial Modern Hebrew and Arabic.