Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

I don't think these are examples of "idiolect", which is, I think, the 
odd speech of just one person. More likely this is a particular 
dialect of English used by teenagers within their sub-culture, either 
in your own area or more widely. Such dialects tend to be influenced 
by Afro-Caribbean dialects of American cities - even in my home area 
(predominantly white) of England, because of influences through pop 
culture. Sorry, that's getting off-topic. Now your daughter may be 
able to switch to a different dialect for a different situation (e.g. 
speaking to you) or genre (e.g. writing an essay for her teacher). But 
even speakers of very "standard" English use unfinished sentences in 
conversation where the rest of the situation is mutually understood.

You wrote: "These statements are not well-formed according to English 
grammar". Well, indeed, according to the type of grammar we learned 
from old-fashioned books based on Latin. On the other hand, such 
statements are perfectly normal and correct, and therefore 
"grammatical", within the dialect in which they occur.

To get back to Hebrew, this means that we cannot find "bad grammar" in 
the Hebrew Bible (except perhaps where the text is corrupted, or 
conceivably where foreigners are speaking (e.g. 2 Kings 18:19-35)), 
but rather "different grammar", corresponding either to a different 
dialect (regional, sub-cultural etc) or to a different genre.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re: Poetry (was [6]: ex 26 + 36.8ff, (36.29))
Author:  dwashbur AT nyx.net at internet
Date:    30/01/1999 03:43


<snip>

This brings up a question that has been tugging at the back of my 
mind for some time.  We all know that there are expressions in 
common use in English and other languages that are not, 
technically, grammatically well-formed but are part of some 
regional dialects nevertheless.  Some good examples come from
my teenage daughter :-)  in such expressions as "So he goes, 'Did
you call him?' and she goes, 'As if!' and then I'm all 'Why's that as 
if?  That guy be cute!'"  These statements are not well-formed 
according to English grammar, but they're part of a sub-sub-sub- 
dialect that she and her friends use in private (they hope) 
conversation, I think the official term is "idiolect."  We all know 
them, yet such expressions within an idiolect are not necessarily 
considered "grammatically well-formed" in the broader context of 
English syntax.  The kids are simply choosing to use "bad"
grammar.

That leads me to my question, submitted for everyone's 
consideration: do we have examples of idiolects in BH, i.e. are 
there instances of "bad grammar" in the biblical corpus?  If so, 
what are some examples?  If not, how do you know?
[helmet on again]

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