Topic, Focus and Foreground in Ancient Hebrew Narratives

Topic, Focus and Foreground in Ancient Hebrew Narratives
Author: Jean-Marc Heimerdinger
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 1999-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567057941

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. A new model is offered showing how foregrounding is achieved by exploiting cognitive structures or by using specific evaluative devices.

Topic, Focus and Foreground in Ancient Hebrew Narratives

Topic, Focus and Foreground in Ancient Hebrew Narratives
Author: Jean-Marc Heimerdinger
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 290
Release: 1999-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567057941

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. A new model is offered showing how foregrounding is achieved by exploiting cognitive structures or by using specific evaluative devices.

Parenthesis in Biblical Hebrew

Parenthesis in Biblical Hebrew
Author: Tamar Zewi
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2007
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004162437

In its examination of parenthesis in Biblical Hebrew, this book presents a linguistic description of Biblical Hebrew parenthetical units through integration of several research disciplines and scholarly approaches: linguistics, discourse studies, text linguistics, textual philology, comparative Semitics, Bible translations, and literature.

How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing

How God Forms Abraham to Be a Blessing
Author: Qiang Fu
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2023-02-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666755443

This book aims to understand God’s interactions with Abraham in relation to God’s command that Abraham “be a blessing” (Gen 12:2d), which is directly tied to God’s goal that “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 12:3b). The book proposes a formative narrative approach to examine interactions between character and plot, the movement of plot, and the connection between sequential plots. An analysis of thirteen Abrahamic narratives (Gen 12–22) suggests a classification based on four different types of interactions between God and Abraham, which indicate how cooperation and conflict between God and Abraham advance the narrative’s plot. The book then proposes a narrative discourse analysis to examine how Abraham evolved through different stages of the narrative by moving from deviation to cooperation. Detailed analysis of this transformation process reveals three turning points in Abraham’s life. The formative narrative approach and narrative discourse analysis proposed in this book can contribute to the analysis of two important aspects of Old Testament narratives: the formation of plot and the cause-and-effect structure in narrative discourse.

From Linguistics to Hermeneutics

From Linguistics to Hermeneutics
Author: Pierre van Hecke
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 457
Release: 2010-12-07
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9004188355

Drawing on the insights of functional grammar and cognitive semantics, this book offers a detailed linguistic analysis of Job 12-14 and a fresh exegetical reading of Job's longest and central speech in the book.

Linguistics & Biblical Exegesis

Linguistics & Biblical Exegesis
Author: Douglas Mangum
Publisher: Lexham Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2017-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1577997050

We rarely think about the way languages work because communicating in our native tongue comes so naturally to us. The Bible was written in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—languages no modern reader can claim to have a native understanding of. A better understanding of how language works should help us understand the Bible better as we seek to discern the original intent and meaning of each biblical author. In this book, you will get a basic introduction to the field of linguistics—its history, its key concepts, its major schools of thought, and how its insights can shed light on various problems in biblical Hebrew and Greek. Numerous examples illustrate linguistic concepts, and technical terminology is clearly defined. Learn how the study of language can enhance your Bible study.

The Construction of Shame in the Hebrew Bible

The Construction of Shame in the Hebrew Bible
Author: Johanna Stiebert
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2002-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 056707868X

This book explores the phenomenon of shame in the Hebrew bible. It focuses particularly on the major prophets, because shame vocabulary is most prominent there. Shame has been widely discussed in the literature of psychology and anthropology; the book discusses the findings of both disciplines in some detail. It emphasises the social-anthropological honour/shame model, which a considerable number of biblical scholars since the early 1990s have embraced enthusiastically. The author highlights the shortcomings of this heuristic model and proposes a number of alternative critical approaches.

The Descent from the Mountain

The Descent from the Mountain
Author: Martin Ravndal Hauge
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1841271772

This 'close reading' of Exodus 19-40 focuses on the repetition of the 'encounter on the mountain'. This double encounter is expressed in a narrative structure of preparatory episodes climaxed by the theophany. The tension of the narrative is linked to 'the people' as the unlikely heroes of encounter and solved by the divine descent from the divine mountain to the man-made tent. The new situation of permanent encounter is foregrounded by the juxtaposed stories of pre- and post- Sinai journey, and the theme of the 'substitution of Moses' underlines a radical reinterpretation of traditional concepts, inviting the reader to embark on a process of identification.

The Origin of the History of Israel

The Origin of the History of Israel
Author: Jan-Wim Wesselius
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2002-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567564258

This book demonstrates that Primary History, the historical work contained in the first nine books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis-2 Kings), was written as one unitary work, in deliberate emulation of the Greek-language Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus (completed c. 440 BCE); the diversity of its books and sections is largely a literary device. The work was most likely written in the period 440-420 BCE, in the period of reform usually associated with the name of Nehemiah. Though this thesis does not directly affect questions of historicity, understanding the literary nature of primary history promises to open new vistas for research into the history of Israel, the Hebrew Bible in general and the history of the Hebrew language.

Sentence Conjunctions in the Gospel of Matthew

Sentence Conjunctions in the Gospel of Matthew
Author: Stephanie Black
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2002-04-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1841272558

An application of current linguistic research on discourse markers to sentence conjunctions in Matthew's Gospel. This treatment combines linguistic insights with a detailed examination of Matthew's use of kai, de and similar conjunctions in narrative passages, culminating in a verse by verse commentary on the structure of Matthew's ;miracle chapters', Matthew 8-9. Black breaks new ground in linguistic theory by modelling the interplay between features such as sentence conjunction, word order, and verb tense in the portrayal of continuity and discontinuity in Greek narrative. A volume of interest to New Testament scholars, classicists, discourse analysts and linguists alike.