Topic, Focus and Foreground in Ancient Hebrew Narratives

by Jean-Marc Heimerdinger, Andrew Mein (Editor), Claudia V. Camp (Editor)

Overview

This study breaks new ground in describing how various linguistic and pragmatic mechanisms affect both the form of the narrative clause and the arrangement of the grammatical elements. The various possible forms that a narrative clause can take are classified in terms of their 'topic-comment' and 'focus-presupposition', and it is argued that the way in which these are articulated dictates the word order in the clause. The outcome of the study demonstrates that the traditional binary distinction between foreground and background, based purely on verb forms, is inadequate. A new model is offered showing how foregrounding is achieved by exploiting cognitive structures or by using specific evaluative devices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781841270142
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/01/1999
Series:	The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies , #295
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Andrew Mein is Lecturer in Old Testament at the University of Durham, UK.

Claudia V. Camp is Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University, USA and was on the steering committee of the Seminar. She is currently co-general editor of the LHBOTS series, as well as the author or editor of 4 books and numerous articles.