Biblical Hebrew Forum

["C. Stirling Bartholomew" <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>]

On 9/28/04 12:11 PM, "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org> wrote:

> Well, in my dialect of English, forms of this without "is" are
> ungrammatical, and so is "Mistah Kurtz he is dead". So I can't compare
> these forms in an unfamiliar dialect.

Peter and Dave Washburn,

This wasn't intended as English syntax, just English words with syntax
borrowed from some other language. The quote from Conrad popped into my mind
when I was reading Arnold & Choi* on Hebrew clause structure.

 > In both Hebrew and Russian the equivalent of "Mistah Kurtz dead" is
> grammatical, and also the equivalent of "he" may be added. In Russian,
> "Mistah Kurtz dead" would be normal, and "Mistah Kurtz he dead" would
> require a break before "he" and mean "As for Mistah Kurtz, he is dead".

Then English had a break, a long dash  "Mistah Kurtz--he dead" but the
speaker isn't Russian. There is a Russian in the story but he didn't speak
this line.

> But I'm not sure that the distinction is the same in Hebrew.

Here is the answer:

On 9/28/04 4:26 PM, "David Kummerow" <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com> wrote:

> Consequently, these clauses are best viewed as having a
> detached or pendens phrase; and depending on whose theory you want to run
> with, the phrase is either topicalised, focused or contasted (alternatively
> kontrasted).
> 
> Your examples might then translate into Engish as:
> 
> "As for Esau, he is Edom" and "As for Yahweh, he is God".
> 
> What do you make of this?

David K., sounds like good Russian syntax :-)
What to you make of this Peter &  Dave W?

Now I am wondering what language provided the syntax for
"Mistah Kurtz--he dead" perhaps Swahili?


greetings,
Clay Bartholomew 
 
*Page 166, A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax  (ISBN:0521533481)
Arnold, Bill T.; Choi, John H. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003