Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Paul Zellmer <zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph>]

Dave Washburn wrote:

> My point is that the discourse
> approaches I've seen tend to assume certain things about the
> clause level that aren't necessarily established, or that at least
> need to be questioned.  The basic question I'm asking is, which
> should come first?  Can discourse analysis provide a truly unified
> syntax (and an autonomous syntax) of the clause level?  If so I'd
> like to see it presented as a prologue to discourse analysis.  If not,
> how does it establish a clause-level basis from which to proceed
> (or does it feel the need to)?  What approach is used to set up the
> clause-level syntax?  To me as a clause-level grammarian, it's a
> little like starting a mystery novel in the middle.

Dave,

I think we might need some specifics on the problems that you see.  As I 
wrote one of my
coworkers, I have "Learning to Read Minds" on my list of things to do, but I 
haven't
progressed very far with it!

With the exception of the volitional (hortatory discourse) genre, it appears 
like Bryan's
summaries of the clause types as used in the genres, found in the appendix in 
the back of
his grammar, show a clause-level description that appears to be the basis for 
what you are
looking for.  But, not having specifics, I can't be sure.

BTW, if you feel like this might be straying too far from the purpose of the 
list, I'm open
to taking this thread offlist.

Paul

--
Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
Ibanag Translation Project
Cabagan, Philippines

zellmer AT faith.edu.ph