The Pragmatics of the X+verb Structure in the Hebrew of Genesis: The Linguistic Functions and Associated Effects and Meanings of Intra-clausal Fronted Constituents 1 (original) (raw)

1 The present work is taken from a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in "The Bible and Its World" ‫בירושלים‬ ‫העברית‬ ‫האוניברסיטה‬ , ‫רותברג‬ ‫שם‬ ‫על‬ ‫לארץ‬ ‫מחוץ‬ ‫לתלמידים‬ ‫הספר‬ ‫בית‬ June 8, 2003. important to note, however, that it is only due to limits of space that such clauses are excluded from the present discussion. Despite important pragmatic and generative differences, there are striking functional similarities between intra-clausal frontings and extra-clausal constituents occurring before the clause, both in BH and cross-linguistically. It is worth briefly mentioning those differences and similarities here. Pragmatically, extra-clausal constituents are rarely if ever focal, whereas this is common for intra-clausal fronted constituents. Generatively, there is a marked difference between how the two elements relate to the rest of the clause. Dik (1981:127-44) discusses the distinction between what he terms topic (i.e. a non-focal intra-clausal fronted element) and theme (i.e. an extra-clausal element occurring before the clause), the main point being that the former should be regarded as integral to the utterance, while the latter cannot be regarded as being part of the underlying predication. Topics and themes (to adopt, for the moment, Dik's terminology) in BH are functionally similar, however, in that both can specially mark the entity about which an assertion is made or more specifically define the domain in which a given assertion holds true. This similarity extends to the theme created by the insertion of a resumptive pronoun. See Khan (1988) for a discussion of the function and various uses of extra-clausal constituents that occur before the clause. See Buth (1999) for an insightful discussion of themes created by the insertion of a resumptive pronoun in the BH verbless clause. It is worth noting that, despite the exclusion of such clauses from the present study, it is predicted that the theories proposed herein could be used effectively to explain them. 4 In other words, this paper does not examine verbless (e.g., nominal and participial) clauses, imperatival clauses (though yiqtol forms used as negative injunctions are included in the study), or conditional clauses. It is important to emphasize, however, that the decision to exclude such clause-types derives from concerns of space, not from the inadequacy of the theories proposed herein to account for similar word order phenomena in such clause-types. The pragmatics of word order variation in the verbless (i.e. nominal and participial) clause has already been capably dealt with by Buth (1999).