Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>]

hi Peter,
----------
> From: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
> To: 596547 AT ican.net; b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
> Subject: Re[2]: Re 1 Sam 1, Peter Kirk
> Date: Tuesday, December 01, 1998 9:00 PM
> 
> Dear Bryan,
> 
> Thanks for your useful comments.
> 
> One area where I am unclear about is the distinction between 
> procedural and instructional discourse and how this relates to 
> register. To which register and discourse type would you assign the 
> detailed instructions (in direct speech) for building the tabernacle 
> in Exodus 25-28 and the instructions for consecration of priests in 
> Exodus 29? Longacre (if I'm allowed to mention him! Sorry, Vince! ;-) 
> ), in "Weqatal forms in Biblical Hebrew Prose" (in RD Bergen (ed) 
> "Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics", SIL 1994) pp.52-55, takes 
> the sacrificial prescriptions of Leviticus as the prototype of 
> procedural discourse - Exodus 29 is very similar - but also describes 
> Exodus 25:1-30:10 as instructional (would he exclude the slightly 
> different chapter 29?).

sorry I wasn't clearer.  and L. should be clearer as well.  L. calls "how
to do it" and "how it was done" discourses procedural.  instructional, in
his view , is to be distinguished from procedural, but i find the
distinction unconvincing, as you note above.  as for me, i distinguish
procedural as the one which is only embedded within historical narrative
giving "how it was done" background vs. instructional as the one which is
located only in direct speech  giving "how to do it." to me instructional
and hortatory are the hard ones to distinguish.  i put instructional and
hortatory on a continuum.  all the Exo passages above are oral register
instructional discourse in my book.  my summary:

                     imperatives  oral  modal  projection(like future)
instructional         +             +       +        +
procedural            -              -        +        -

both have weqatal and X-yiqtol

btw, Niccacci considers procedural passages to be discursive( like my oral)
by virtue of the weqatal/X-yiqtol.  i don't buy it entirely because it
doesn't account for the difference in projection between what is inside and
what is outside direct speech.

hoping to help,
Bryan


B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13208

315-437-6744(w)
315-479-8267(h)