Topic, focus and foreground in ancient Hebrew narratives / Jean-Marc Heimerdinger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heimerdinger, Jean-Marc.

Series:

Journal for the study of the Old Testament. Supplement series ; 295.

Journal for the study of the Old Testament. Supplement series ; 295

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hebrew language--Discourse analysis.

Hebrew language.

Hebrew language--Topic and comment.

Foregrounding.

Bible. Old Testament--Language, style.

Bible.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 pages)

Place of Publication:

Sheffield, Eng. : Sheffield Academic Press, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This study breaks new ground in describing how various linguistic and pragmatic mechanisms affect both the form of the narrative clause and the arrangement of the grammatical elements. The various possible forms that a narrative clause can take are classified in terms of their 'topic-comment' and 'focus-presupposition', and it is argued that the way in which these are articulated dictates the word order in the clause. The outcome of the study demonstrates that the traditional binary distinction between foreground and background, based purely on verb forms, is inadequate.

Contents:

Contents; Preface; Abbreviations; INTRODUCTION; Chapter 1 LANGUAGE, DISCOURSE AND NARRATIVE: AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK; Chapter 2 LONGACRE'S TEXT-LINGUISTIC MODEL: DESCRIPTION AND CRITICAL APPRAISAL; Chapter 3 TOPICALITY AND TOPICAL ENTITIES: AN ANALYSIS OF GENESIS 22; Chapter 4 DISCOURSE REFERENTS AND TOPICALITY; Chapter 5 FOCUS IN DIRECT SPEECH CLAUSES AND FOCUS IN THE NARRATIVE VERBAL CLAUSES; Chapter 6 ASPECTS OF FOREGROUNDING IN NARRATIVE DISCOURSE; Chapter 7 GENERAL CONCLUSION; Appendix; Bibliography; Index of References; Index of Authors

Notes:

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral--Reading University).

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9786611841454

9781281841452

1281841455

9780567057945

0567057941

OCLC:

276867651