Grice on the implicature of " יְהִי אוֹר "

by JLS
for the GC

In "Intention and Uncertainty", Grice is complaining about the lack of a future tense in English -- "that is so perspicuous and ubiquitous in other languages, such as Greek, Latin, or -- I am told -- Hebrew."

The Hebrew reference is to

יְהִי אוֹר

which is ascribed to God.

Grice notes an ambiguity in


יְהִי אוֹר

Which he symbolises as

There will-F be light.
There will-I be light.
There shall be light.

and ventures that God must have meant "I", rather than "F" ("while engaged in the Creation").

יְהִי אוֹר (yehiy 'or) was translated in the "Vulgata" (a vulgar thing, literally) as "fiat lux". The Greek "γενηθήτω φώς" (genēthētō phōs) is more to the point. The Grecian in Grice knew this.