The Discourse Functions of Overspecified Anaphoric Expressions in Biblical Hebrew Narrative: Genesis 12‐24 as a Test Case. (2nd September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bergström, Ulf
• Is Part Of: Journal of Semitic studies. Volume 65:Number 2(2020)
• Page Start: 275
• Page End: 296
• Publication Date: 2020-09-02
• Subjects: Semitic philology -- Periodicals; Jews -- Periodicals; 299.2
• DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgaa001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-4480

Abstract

Abstract: In Biblical Hebrew, as in other languages, anaphoric reference is often overspecified; that is, an anaphoric noun (lexical anaphora) is used in a place where the inflection of the verb (inflectional anaphora) would be a sufficient indicator as to who is being referred to. The present study investigates the function of overspecified subject referents in Biblical Hebrew narrative discourse. It is found that overspecification can be associated with three main textual phenomena, namely, events of general relevance, subject referent initiative, and various textual discontinuities. The function of indicating subject referent initiative lies behind many of the occurrences of lexical anaphora at the beginning of episodic units, but it may also occur within episodes. The different functions of overspecification and inflectional anaphora arise as a result of the different mental processes triggered by lexical and deictic anaphora, whereby the former evokes general, contextindependent knowledge about the referent and impedes the access to the information contained in the previous clause, whereas the latter makes it immediately available.