Durham E-Theses Syntax of Targum Aramaic: A TextLinguistic Reading of 1Samuel CONDREA, VASILE,ANDREI How to cite: CONDREA, VASILE,ANDREI (2017) Syntax of Targum Aramaic: A TextLinguistic Reading of 1Samuel , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12174/ Use policy This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 (CC0) Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Syntax of Targum Aramaic: A Text–Linguistic Reading of 1Samuel Vasile Andrei Condrea A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy Department of Theology and Religion Durham University 2016 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author's prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. This work was supported by the AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership. Abstract Syntax of Targum Aramaic: A Text–Linguistic Reading of 1Samuel Biblical languages and time mix well. The former allow access to ancient times when our ancestors, we are told, spoke to God face–to–face. This interaction took place supposedly in the languages in which we receive the literary account of the interaction. This thesis aims to reconnect our modern languages to Targum Aramaic. With the use of two complementary linguistic methods, that of text–linguistics (Harald Weinrich) and the functional sentence perspective of the Prague school (FSP), it seeks to answer key questions about Aramaic syntax and word order. In Targum 1Samuel, the text examined here, connection with the reader is established through a flow of narrative, which represents the sequence of events as they happened, which is sometimes substituted with comment. This comment represents the narrator’s notes, clarifications, or it simply tells or re–tells the events in the form of a report rather than narrative. These authorial interventions accompany the narration. Weinrich described these two realities, and connected them with morphological tenses in modern languages, which use tenses like past simple our past perfect for narrative, but comment by employing present, present perfect, and future. Comment and narrative tenses are exhibited by the indirect speech of narrative genre in most modern languages. The Aramaic and the Biblical Hebrew underlying 1Samuel, being Semitic Languages, do not display that morphological diversity in terms of tense; consequently, modern readers have tended to read them simply as narrative, ignoring comment. This is evident in most translations and interpretations of these texts into modern languages. Where indirect speech occurs in either Aramaic or Hebrew, such translations and interpretations assume that the text merely narrates, and accordingly they restrict themselves to using past simple and continuous, and past perfect and continuous tenses, and their equivalents in modern languages. This thesis ascertains that comment in Targum 1Samuel is closely bound up with word order and the limited number of tenses in Aramaic. Interpreting these together gives us back our narrator and his notes, clarifications, or reports. Contents Abstract 3 Abbreviations 8 Glossary of Terms 9 0 Introduction 10 0.1 General approaches and objectives 10 0.1.1 Poststructuralism 10 0.1.2 Concepts derived from Niccacci’s work 13 0.1.3 Concepts derived from literary critics: temporal metaphor, text, episode, and prelude 13 0.2 The plan of this thesis 16 0.2.1 Chapter 1 – Methodology 16 0.2.2 Chapter 2 – wqetal forms 17 0.2.3 Chapter 3 – wparticiple forms 17 0.2.4 Chapter 4 – xqetal, xparticiple and the (few) xyiqtul forms 18 0.2.5 Chapter 5 – conclusions 19 0.3 Results of this thesis 20 1 Chapter 1 – Description of methodology: Functional sentence perspective, Harald Weinrich, and the narrative text 22 1.1 Text–linguistics and Functional Sentence Perspective 22 1.2 Functional Sentence Perspective 28 1.2.1 Communicative dynamism 28 1.2.1.1 Linear modification 29 1.2.1.2 Contextual factor 30 1.2.1.3 Semantic factor 31 1.2.1.3.1 Complement 31 1.2.1.3.2 Adverbial elements 32 1.2.1.3.3 Subject 33 1.2.2 Perspective in FSP: Presentation–scale and Quality–scale sentences 34 1.2.3 Theme and Rheme 35 1.2.4 CD and Potentiality 37 1.3 Text linguistics 39 1.3.1 Generalities on text linguistics 39 1.3.2 Text linguistics of H. Weinrich – Tempus 39 1.3.3 Hamburger and ‘logic of literature’ 40 1.3.4 Weinrich and text linguistics 43 1.3.4.1 Verbal tenses in text 43 1.3.4.2 Linguistic attitude: comment and narrative, two faces of communication 45 1.3.4.3 Linguistic perspective: retrospect, zero degree, and anticipation 47 1.3.4.4 Narrative Prominence: foreground and background 49 1.3.5 Historical context of Weinrich’s oppositions and the limits of his terminology 53 1.4 Generalities on tense in biblical studies and Weinrich’s general approach 55 1.5 Further descriptions of narrative foreground background 60 1.5.1 William Labov and Joshua Waletzky – a narrative analysis of verb 61 1.5.2 Sergei Karcevski and Roman Jakobson 62 1.5.3 Paul Hopper 63 1.5.4 Hellen Dry and the ‘illusion of temporal movement’ 65 1.5.5 Tanya Reinhart 66 1.6 Weinrich’s text linguistics and the important terms for this thesis 70 1.6.1 Weinrich and the American strand on foreground/ background 70 1.6.2 Tense as linguistic sign in Weinrich’s methodology 72 1.6.3 The limits of Weinrich’s vocabulary versus narrative descriptions in the American strand 76 1.6.4 Terms and conditions of the text–linguistics method 80 1.7 Narrative: Text, Episode, and Time 86 1.7.1 What is a text? 87 1.7.2 Episode and prelude of episode 93 1.7.3 Time in narrative 100 1.7.3.1 Genette and time in Proust 101 1.7.3.2 Kristeva’s temporal metaphor – time in narrative 103 1.7.3.2.1 Weinrich and ‘Tempus–Metaphorik’ 104 1.7.3.2.2 Kristeva’s temporal metaphor 105 1.7.3.2.3 Metamorphic events in the Bible: direct speech 107 1.7.4 Aramaic tense distribution according to time passage 110 2 Chapter 2: Wqetal 112 2.1 FSP patterns in Aramaic 112 2.2 Prelude forms in Targum Aramaic 117 2.2.1 Wqetal prelude 119 2.2.1.1 Speech event wqetal in prelude 119 2.2.1.2 Movement Event Wqetal in prelude 120 as wqetal prelude 124 והוה 2.2.1.3 2.2.2 Temporally sequenced narrative in 1Samuel and wqetal of prelude 130 2.2.2.1 Prelude and the sequence of episodes in 1Samuel 132 2.2.2.2 An exception to the rule of prelude wqetal as referring episodes in temporal sequence 136 2.2.3 Other forms of prelude 137 2.2.3.1 Waw–subject–qetal prelude 137 2.2.3.2 Waw–subject–participle prelude 141 2.2.3.3 Nominal Clause as waw–Pr–scale sentence: Phenomenon–Transition–Setting 143 2.2.3.4 NC prelude: rheme–theme in 13:1 145 2.3 Wqetal and Narrative Time 146 2.3.1 Normal wqetal narrative 150 2.3.1.1 Wqetal narrative metaphoric 150 2.3.1.2 Wqetal of speech event within episode or metamorphic 153 as speech event 154 אמר 2.3.1.2.1 2.3.1.2.2 Other speech event verbs 155 2.3.1.2.3 Examples of ‘reduction of speech to event’ 156 2.3.2 Coordinate wqetal – complete action 158 2.3.3 Non–sequential or incomplete action wqetal 161 2.3.4 Wqetal hendiadys 164 170 הוה The wqetal of the verb 2.3.5 172 והוה The non–sequential/incomplete action with 2.3.5.1 as macro–syntactic sign 178 והוה 2.3.5.2 as macro–syntactic sign in the context of Functional Sentence והוה 2.3.5.2.1 Perspective 179 as macro–syntactic sign 180 ויהי Niccacci’s proposal of 2.3.5.2.2 183 והוה Protasis–apodosis constructions without 2.3.5.2.3 2.3.5.2.4 Wqetal as predominant form in apodosis 186 2.3.5.2.5 The apodosis with xqetal: retrospection and emphasis 189 with participle becomes protasis 197 והוה When 2.3.5.3 as MS? 202 והוו 2.3.5.4 as MS and the cases of 14:19 and 1:12 203 והוה Conclusion on the usage of 2.3.5.5 3 Chapter 3: Wparticiple 207 3.1 Sequences of wparticiple forms 209 3.1.1 Wparticiple forms in temporal juncture 209 3.1.2 Wparticiple with non–sequential/incomplete meaning (part 1) 212 3.1.3 Wparticiple of speech event with non–sequential meaning (part 2) 217 219 אזיל וסגי :Wparticiple of hendiadys 3.1.4 3.2 Single occurrences of wparticiple 221 3.2.1 Repetitive single wparticiple forms 222 3.2.2 Durative single wparticiple forms 224 3.2.3 Prelude single wparticiple 227 3.3 Conclusion on wparticiple 229 3.3.1 New functions of participle 233 3.3.1.1 Description 233 3.3.1.2 Secondary characters 233 3.3.1.3 Further circumstances 233 3.3.1.4 Prelude and end–of–episode wparticiple 235 3.3.1.4.1 Prelude 235 3.3.1.4.2 End–of–episode wparticiple 237 3.4 2:12–17 – a ‘background’ episode 240 4 Chapter 4: x–verb forms: xqetal, xparticiple, xyiqtul 243 4.1 Word order and comment in Targum Aramaic 245 4.1.1 Word order 245 4.1.2 Theoretical discussion of comment 247 4.2 Question for xqetal/xparticiple 251 4.3 x–verb – between first and second word order 260 4.3.1 (i) Contrast xqetal – variation of second word order 260 4.3.2 Traces of comment and subject–qetal in 4:10–11 266 4.3.3 (ii) xqetal as comment retrospective 271 4.3.3.1 The xqetal form as narrative variation to wqetal 275 4.3.3.2 Conclusive remarks on xqetal comment retrospective versus wqetal narrative zero degree 277 4.3.4 Further on retrospection: comment xqetal against wqetal narrative 279 4.3.4.1 Narrative retrospect – the opposite equivalent of comment retrospect 283 4.3.5 (iii) xqetal as comment zero degree (first part) 284 4.3.5.1 LXX 1Samuel 13 and 17, and comment tenses 286 4.3.5.2 Comment zero degree as ‘historic