Paragraphs as episodes : distinguishing paragraphs in Biblical Hebrew narrative text on the basis of linguistic devices

[摘要] The aim of this study is to determine inter-subjective, verifiable criteria according towhich paragraphs can be distinguished in BH narrative texts. Distinguishing these unitsplays an important role in the understanding and processing of written texts.Corpus studies in text-linguistics and empirical studies in psycholinguistic studies haveestablished that narrative is not only characterized by a string of sentences, but has amulti-dimensional or hierarchical structure, which can be broken down into units. Theseunits are regarded as episodes, which are cognitively and structurally relevant. Anepisode is defined as a memory block. Semantically, it is defined as a thematicallyunified entity, the surface boundaries of which are marked linguistically.On the one hand, text production studies have established that authors employsegmentation markers or devices at the beginning of each episode in order to warnthe reader that a new episode is impending. On the other hand, studies in textcomprehension have also concluded that readers understand these devices of textualsegmentation.On the basis of the above investigations, this study established a set of criteria foridentifying episodes. The criteria included several segmentation devices such asoverspecified referential expressions, temporal expressions, and shifts in space thatmark the boundaries of episodes, as well as devices that signal thematic continuityin narrative episodes of BH. The value and validity of these criteria were thentested in the light of a specific corpus of texts, viz. 1 Sam 1-6. The text wasanalyzed and episodes have been distinguished by means of the above-mentionedset of criteria. These episodes were then compared to the paragraph distinctions (i.e.the graphic representations of episodes), which are made in a representative numberof commentaries and translations.The investigation confirmed that many of the paragraph distinctions in commentariesand translations are justifiable. However, it was also found that the paragraphdistinctions of exegetes and translators often differ. This finding confirmed thenecessity (and need) of inter-subjectively verifiable, and well-founded, criteria fordistinguishing paragraphs in BH narratives. This exploratory study established the valueof the model used, but also indicated that further investigation is needed to refinevarious aspects of the model.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University