Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

Paul wrote:

> 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!

Me too!

> 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.

The best response I can give is to point to what Rolf wrote.  I 
couldn't say it better if my life depended on it (which, thankfully it 
doesn't, since I'm still wearing the helmet :-)

> 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.

I don't think it's straying at all, since discourse is the biggie in 
Hebrew grammatical study these days.  But that's just one opinion, 
and I sure don't presume to speak for the whole list.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
A Bible that's falling apart means a life that isn't.