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b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Pronoun )nky in Judg. 6:8

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  • From: "David Kummerow" <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Pronoun )nky in Judg. 6:8
  • Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 16:27:35 +1000


Actually, Holmstedt is one of the few who *does* argue for a S-V order for BH. (Not that I want to fire up this debate again!)

David Kummerow.

On Tuesday 05 October 2004 15:17, C. Stirling Bartholomew wrote:
Judg. 6:8 wy$lx yhwh )y$ nby) )l-bny y&r)l wy)mr lhM kh-)mr yhwh )lhy
y&r)l
)nky h(lyty )tkM mmcryM w)cy) )tkM mbyt (bdyM

The "clause" ... )nky h(lyty )tkM mmcryM ... looks exceedingly
innocent to
the untrained eye, an explicit pronominal subject before a finite verb.
However, while working my way once again through "Fronting"
R.Holmstedt*,
I came across a discussion of Judg. 6:8 in another place**.

What can we say about )nky ? Well using a somewhat lazy definition of
"focus" I would suggest that )nky points the reader to what is important
about the following clause. What is important is who did it. The
preverbal
pronoun focuses the readers attention on the _who_ not the _what_.
Without
this pronoun, the _what_ would fall into the new information slot.
With the
preverbal pronoun, the new information slot moves.

The biggest problem I see with this idea is that, like so many others, he
assumes that the basal constituent order in Hebrew is V - S, which may
or may
not be the case. Most of the grammars out there assume this order mainly
because the wayyiqtol form is so prevalent in the HB, and this form is
always
clause-initial. But there is strong evidence that it is a "derived" form
(for lack of a better term) that has in fact itself been "fronted," and the
basal order in Heb. is S - V - (O). If this is the case, then we don't
really have a pronoun being "fronted" here. Since this is the first clause
in a section of direct speech, it would appear to me that it simply
identifies the new speaker. Whether that puts emphasis on the "who" rather
than the "what" is another issue, more involved with pragmatics than with
syntax. Or so ISTM.

--
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"No good. Hit on head." -Gronk



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