Word-order variation in biblical Hebrew poetry : differentiating pragmatics and poetics / Nicholas P. Lunn ; foreword by Jean-Marc Heimerdinger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lunn, Nicholas P.

Contributor:

Edith E. Clark Endowment Fund.

Series:

Paternoster biblical monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible. Old Testament.

Hebrew poetry, Biblical--History and criticism.

Hebrew poetry, Biblical.

Hebrew language--Word order.

Hebrew language.

Pragmatics.

Poetics.

Bible. Old Testament--Criticism, interpretation, etc--History--To 1500.

Bible.

Bible. Old Testament--Language, style.

History.

Physical Description:

xxii, 373 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Milton Keynes, UK ; Waynesboro, Ga. : Paternoster, 2006.

Language Note:

English and Hebrew.

Summary:

This study tackles the neglected subject of word order in biblical Hebrew poetry. The fact that the order of clause constituents frequently differs from that found in prose has often been noted, but no systematic attempt has been offered by way of explanation. Here two separate factors are taken into consideration, that of purely poetic variation (defamiliarisation), and that of pragmatic markedness. The former is common to the poetic genre. In the latter case there is a discernible significance in the positioning of the words that has implications with respect to the matters of topic and focus.

Using Lambrecht's theory of information structure and building on the insights of previous studies in biblical Hebrew narrative, the present volume shows that marked topic and focus structures in Old Testament poetry are identical to those found in prose and are distinguishable from defamiliarised word order by means of the environment in which the latter is found. Here the common phenomenon of parallelism is seen to be an important factor in providing a secondary line in which defamiliarisation may freely occur. This work offers a new approach to the poetry of the Old Testament that will be an aid towards more accurate translation, exegesis, and discourse analysis of poetic texts.

Contents:

Linguistic Notation xxi

Chapter 1 The Problem of Word Order in Biblical Hebrew Poetry 1

1.1 Differences between Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Prose 1

1.2 Constituent Order in Biblical Hebrew 4

1.3 The Nature of the Problem 5

1.4 The Extent of the Problem 6

1.5 A Linguistic Approach to a Solution 9

1.6 The Organisation of the Book 9

1.7 The Corpus of Selected Data 10

Chapter 2 A Description of the Basic Units of Hebrew Poetry 11

2.1 The Colon 11

2.1.2 The Poetic Colon in Relation to the Grammatical Clause 12

2.1.3 The Relative Frequency of Colon Structures 13

2.2 Parallelism in Biblical Hebrew Poetry 14

2.2.1 The Character of Parallelism 14

2.2.2 Additional Features of Parallelism 18

a Gapping 18

b Embedding 19

c Extending 20

2.2.3 The Rhetorical Function of Parallelism 20

2.3 Intercolon Relations 21

Chapter 3 Pragmatic Factors Influencing Word Order in Biblical Hebrew 27

3.1 Previous Considerations of Word Order in Biblical Hebrew 27

3.2 The Theory of Information Structure 29

3.3 Lambrecht's Information Structure and Sentence Form 32

3.3.1 Topic and Activation State 33

3.3.2 Focus, Assertion and Presupposition 35

3.3.3 The Three Focus Structures 36

a Predicate Focus 37

b Argument Focus 38

c Sentence Focus 39

3.4 Information Structure and Biblical Hebrew 41

3.4.1 The Three Focus Structures in Hebrew Narrative 41

a Predicate Focus 41

b Argument Focus 44

c Sentence Focus 45

3.4.2 Focus Particles and Focus Categories 47

a Contrasting Focus 48

b Parallel Focus 48

c Replacing Focus 50

d Restricting Focus 50

e Expanding Focus 52

f Selecting Focus 53

g Specifying Focus 53

3.4.3 Extraposition 54

3.5 Unmarked Sentence-Initial Phrases of Setting 55

Chapter 4 Pragmatic Markedness in Poetic Cola: (1) Non-Parallel Lines 61

4.1 Quotation of Marked Clauses from Prose within Poetry 61

4.2 Similarity of Marked Structures in Prose and Poetry 63

4.2.1 Marked Clauses with Focus Particles 64

a Expanding Focus with [Characters not reproducible] 64

b Expanding Focus with [Characters not reproducible] 67

c Restricting Focus with [Characters not reproducible] 69

d Restricting Focus with [Characters not reproducible] 70

4.2.2 Marked Clauses without Focus Particles 71

a Specifying Focus 72

b Replacing Focus 73

c Contrasting Relationships 75

4.2.3 Sentence-Focus Clauses 79

a Event-Reporting Clauses 79

b Presentational Clauses 82

4.2.4 Extraposed Constructions 82

4.2.5 Doubly Marked Clauses 84

4.3 Implications of Allo-Clauses in Poetic Texts 86

4.4 The Use of Independent Pronouns 92

Chapter 5 Defamiliarised Word Order in Parallel Lines 95

5.1 The Order of Clause Constituents in Parallel B-Lines 95

5.2 Attempted Pragmatic Interpretations of Parallel B-Lines 97

5.2.1 Buth on Psalm 51 97

5.2.2 Shimasaki on Parallel Constructions 102

5.2.3 Parallel Lines and Parallel Focus 104

5.3 Poetically Defamiliarised Word Order 105

5.3.1 Poetic Freedom in Parallel Lines 105

5.3.2 Parallel Lines in Other Languages 107

5.3.3 The Form of Reordering in Parallel Lines 107

a Two-Part Chiasmus 107

b Three-Part Chiasmus 107

c Partial Chiasmus 108

d Non-Chiastic Reordering 108

5.3.4 The Notion of Symmetry 109

5.3.5 A Choice of Variables 109

5.4 The Labelling of Colon-Types and the Description of Parallelisms 110

5.5 Pattern Formation Involving Defamiliar Cola 112

5.6 The Environment and Distribution of Defamiliar Cola 114

5.7 The Priority of the A-Line 115

5.7.1 Dependence in Topical Reference 116

5.7.2 Dependence in Gapping 116

5.7.3 Dependence in Gender Parallelism 117

5.7.4 Dependence in Tense-Shifting 117

5.7.5 Pragmatic Dependence 118

Chapter 6 Distinguishing Marked and Defamiliar Word Order 121

6.1 The Priority of Environment over Form 121

6.2 Resolving Complex Cases 122

6.3 Pitch Prominence in Distinguishing Marked from Defamiliar 124

6.4 Contrast and Chiasmus 127

Chapter 7 Pragmatic Markedness in Poetic Cola: (2) Parallel Lines 131

7.1 Constraint upon Pragmatic Marking in Parallelisms 131

7.2 Examples of Pragmatic Marking in Parallelisms 132

7.2.1 Two Cola in Parallelism 132

a SV//SV 132

b OV//OV 133

c MV//MV 134

7.2.2 Two Bicola in Parallelism 135

7.2.3 Two Preverbal Elements in Parallelism 136

7.2.4 Parallelism with Focus Particles 138

7.2.5 Parallelism with Extraposition 140

7.2.6 Parallelism with Gapping 141

7.2.7 Extended Parallelism 144

a Identical Ordering 144

b Medial Variation 145

c Final Variation 148

7.3 The Co-Occurrence of Pragmatic Marking and Poetic Defamiliarisation 150

7.4 Exceptions to the Constraint 151

7.4.1 Phrases of Setting 151

a Temporal 151

b Spatial 152

7.4.2 Pronominal Forms 152

a Independent Pronominal Subject 153

b Independent Pronominal Object 153

c Pronominal Prepositional Phrase 154

7.5 Reason for the Constraints 155

Chapter 8 Discourse Functions of Unusual Colon Arrangements 159

8.1 Introduction: Reversal of the Norm 159

8.2 Rare Parallel Constructions in Specific Distribution 159

8.2.1 DEF-Initial Parallelisms 160

a DEF//CAN 160

b DEF//DEF 176

c DEF//Gap 180

d DEF//Nom 182

8.2.2 MKD-Initial Parallelisms 182

a MKD//CAN 182

b MKD//DEF 184

c MKD//Gap 187

8.2.3 Gap-Initial Parallelisms 188

a Gap//DEF 188

b Gap//MKD 189

c Gap//CAN 189

8.3 Defamiliar Cola in Non-Parallelisms 190

8.4 The Noetic Effect of Unusual Patterns 192

Chapter 9 Application: Standard and Difficult Texts 195

9.1 Standard Texts 195

9.1.1 Psalm 1 195

9.1.2 Psalm 103 200

9.1.3 Job 12 208

9.1.4 Song of Songs 1 218

9.1.5 Numbers 23:7-10 225

9.2 Potential Difficulties 231

9.2.1 Incorrect Verse Division 231

9.2.2 Incorrect Syntactic Analysis 232

9.2.3 Implicit Relativizer 233

9.2.4 Unrecognised Embedded Parallelism 234

9.2.5 Unrecognised Extended Parallelism 235

9.2.6 Textual Variant 238

9.3 Difficult Texts 239

9.3.1 Psalm 44:2-9 239

9.3.2 Isaiah 42:1-4 246

9.3.3 Isaiah 60:1-3 250

Chapter 10 Alternative Approaches: Rosenbaum and Gross 255

10.1 General Observations 255

10.2 Rosenbaum's Word-Order Variation in Isaiah 40-55 256

10.2.1 Examples Relating to Pragmatic Factors 257

10.2.2 Examples Relating to Poetic Factors 264

10.3 Gross' Doppelt besetztes Vorfeld 268

11.2 Relative Frequency of Colon-Types 276

11.3 For Further Study 279

Appendix 1 Statistical Comparison of Word Order in Biblical Hebrew Prose and Poetry 291

Appendix 2 The Database 293.

Notes:

Includes bibligraphical references (pages [281]-289) and indexes.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edith E. Clark Endowment Fund.

ISBN:

1842274236

9781842274231

OCLC:

77570164