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  • From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew "If-and" construction and the Book of Mormon
  • Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:24:09 +1000

Hi Kevin,

No, no quotation. Just my quick application of the study to the issue at hand.

Here's what I'm saying: when comparing individual languages, their coordinators/conjunctions will not always entirely match. That is, one language may employ fewer coordinators/conjunctions whereas another may employ more, the language employing fewer still expressing the same functions as the other language albeit with forms that display greater mutifunctionality/polyfunctionality. The BH coordinator/conjunction waw is an example: it would seem to bear at least the range of functions coordination-consecutive-resultative-adversative-disjunctive (plus some other finer-grained distinctions). English has the words: "and", "then", "so that", "but", "or" etc. So the BH "and" displays much greater multifunctionality vis-a-vis to English "and". What this means in regards to translation into English is that since English doesn't have a single mutifunctional word covering the same semantics as BH "and", then a choice has to often be made for another word, be it "so that", "but", etc.

Hope that helps.

David Kummerow.

I'm sorry David, could you be a litle more clearer? Was that a direct citation from the source you provided?


>/From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo at hotmail.com
<http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew>>
/>/To: b-hebrew at lists.ibiblio.org
<http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew>
/>/Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew "If-and" construction and the Book of
/>/Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:04:38 +1000
/>/
/>/Cross-linguistically, some language coordinators/conjunctions commonly
/>/group meanings which other languages choose to divide (see the reference
/>/below). It is not uncommon for a single coordinator to group the
/>/meanings "and", "sequential" (then), "resultative" (so that), etc. The
/>/Morman translation, then, has failed to recognise that what Hebrew does
/>/with the one coordinator/conjunction (waw) English regularly does with
/>/two ("and", "then").
/>/
/>/Malchukov, Andrej. 2004. "Towards a Semantic Typology of Adversative and
/>/Contrast Marking." Journal of Semantics 21: 177-198.
/>/
/>/Regards,
/>/David Kummerow.
/>/ >
/>/ > I am looking to get some confirmation about an apologetic that is
/>/ > growing in popularity among Latter-day Saints. For those who are not
/>/ > familiar with the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith claims to have
/>/ > translated the text from gold plates that were written upon an Ancient
/>/ > Hebrew writer.
/>/ >
/>/ > The original manuscripts of the Book of Mormon include weird phrases
/>/ > that involve an if-and construction instead of an if-then
/>/ > construction. According to Mormon scholar Royal Skousen:
/>/ >
/>/ > "In a recent paper I describe two important examples of Hebraisms in
/>/ > the original text of the Book of Mormon that do not occur in the King
/>/ > James Bible. One example is the use of the if-and clausal construction
/>/ > instead of the expected if-(then) syntax of English, as in the
/>/ > following extended passage from Helaman 12 where it occurs seven times
/>/ > (thus showing that we are not dealing with an isolated transcriptional
/>/ > error):
/>/ >
/>/ > if he sayeth unto the earth move and it is moved
/>/ >
/>/ > if he sayeth unto the earth thou shalt go back that it lengthen out
/>/ > the day for many hours and it is done .
/>/ >
/>/ > if he sayeth unto the waters of the great deep be thou dried up and it
/>/ > is done.
/>/ >
/>/ > This construction is a literalistic translation of the Hebrew-language
/>/ > construction, but does not occur at all in the King James Bible."
/>/ >
/>/ > For our Hebrew experts out there, is it true that the "if-and"
/>/ > construction is a common occurence in the Hebrew Bible, and is it also
/>/ > true that this lingustic phenomenon is unique only to Hebrew?
/>/ >/





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