Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

MA:>I was wondering if anyone had compiled a list of examples of V O S
>word orders in Genesis - 2 Kings, where both O and S are overt, and V
>is either any verb except a participle. GKC list only four (Gen 21.7;
>Num 5.23; 1 Sa 15.33; 2 Sam 24.16) and raise doubts about 2 Sam 24.16.

Two processes can generate this. 
(a) a whole predication can be fronted, verb+object, which produces VOS
order and of course calls for pragmatic interpretation.
(b) there is a non-salient slot between verbs and subjects that normally
attracts pronouns and non-salient prepositional phrases. Rarely, this may
attract highly presupposed (non-salient) information, even at a noun phrase
level. this also produces VOS. (b) can explain all the citations above.

You can show that (a) should exist and is real by looking at the few
examples of participle+X that rarely occur pre-subject in BH. (NB: basic
order for participle clauses is S-Part. So Part+X+Subject shows both Part
plus X having been fronted at the 'macro' level of clause constituent
ordering and not the lower level [(b) above] where the phenemenon is
limited to highly non-salient information.) 
 

Blessings,
Randy