eBook

Focus Construction with kî ʾim in Biblical Hebrew

Park, Grace J

2023,2024

Overview

This study uses modern linguistic theory to analyze a frequently recurring syntactic phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible that has thus far resisted explanation: כי אם. The combination of the two particles כי and אם produces a construction that is notoriously difficult to describe, analyze syntactically, and translate. Dictionaries of Biblical Hebrew offer a dizzying variety of translations for this construction, including “that if,” “except,” “unless,” “but,” “but only,” and “surely,” among other possibilities. In this book, Grace J. Park provides a new approach that strives for greater precision and consistency in translation. Park argues that כי אם is used in three patterns: the “full focus” pattern, the “reduced focus” pattern, and the less common “non-focus” pattern. Her syntactic analysis of all 156 occurrences of the כי אם construction in the Bible lends greater clarity to the contested passages. Drawing on recent linguistic research into the typology of clausal nominalization as well as previous work on contrastive focus, this innovative project provides important new insight into the syntax of Biblical Hebrew. It will be especially valuable for scholars seeking to translate כי אם more consistently and accurately.

• Publisher: Penn State University Press,Pennsylvania State University Press
• Subject: Bible.-Old Testament-Criticism, interpretation, etc / Bible.-Old Testament-Language, style / Biblical Criticism & Interpretation / Biblical Hebrew / Clausal Nominalization / Concessive Clause / Contrastive Focus / Focus / Focus (Linguistics) / Focus Construction / Focus Pattern / FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY / FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY / Hebrew / Hebrew / Hebrew language-Discourse analysis / Hebrew language-Particles / Insubordination / Interrogatives / LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Language Typology / Left Dislocation / Linguistics / Matrix clause / Mirativity / Negation / Negative Polarity Item / Nominalization / Old Testament / RELIGION / Resumption / Rhetorical Questions / Right Dislocation / Speaker Attitude / Stance / Stand-alone Nominalization / Subordination / Syntax / Temporal Clause / Topicalization / Unmarked Relative Clause / Unmarked Rhetorical Question / Word Order
• ISBN: 1646022467, 9781646022502, 1646022505, 9781646022465