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  • From: Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: 1 sam 1, bryan II
  • Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 08:05:53 -0500 (EST)


bryan,
just a little background. I'm teaching intro Hebrew, and we're reading
1 Samuel. why? (1) Revell insists, and I'm with him, that the
"Standard" is in Samuel-Kings, the best of the early hebrew; and (2)
it allows me to talk about the history of the text (couldn't ask for a
more corrupt text). but more than that, I like Hannah. and more than
that, this is some of the best of narrative stylistics---but it's
different from the garden-variety narrative. it also has in ch 1 a lot
of rarer forms that you don't see that often otherwise, including the
absolutes. lots of challenges for the textlinguist too. (btw, your
analysis looks about right: pretty standard)

but if you're looking for breaks, seems to me the participant tracking
has a lot to offer. on this view, ish ehad is established as the
focus, and pronouns refer to him. the big break comes v3 when he is
reintroduced as a full grammatical subject, ha'ish hahu. at v5 Hannah
becomes the focus in a seamless transition. only at v9 does she
resurface as a full grammatical subject.

on this view, and I'm beginning to think that this is the primary
"backbone" of narrative, the breaks at v3 and v9, signalled by
reintroducing participants in full after tracking them with pronouns,
correspond exactly with the NIV paragraph breaks: you'd think they
knew what they were doing, n'est-ce pas?

V
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Vincent DeCaen, Ph.D. <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~decaen/hsei/intro.html
c/o Deparment of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor, University of Toronto, Toronto ON, M5S 1A1
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The world needs open hearts and open minds, and it is not through
rigid systems, whether old or new, that these can be derived.
--Bertrand Russell



  • 1 sam 1, bryan II, Vincent DeCaen, 11/27/1998

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