Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David Kummerow" <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

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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