Towards a discourse-pragmatic description of left-dislocation in biblical Hebrew
This is an exploratory investigation into the discourse-pragmatic function(s) of the so-called Left-Dislocation construction in Biblical Hebrew. This inquiry is a part of a larger investigation into the nature and function of word order variation in Biblical Hebrew. In light of past research on Biblical Hebrew word-order variation, specifically concerning Left-Dislocation constructions, it is concluded that a re-analysis of Left-Dislocation constructions in Biblical Hebrew is called for. Advancements within the fields of cognitive-functional linguistics and discourse-pragmatics (information-structure) have afforded numerous avenues towards a more comprehensive cognitive-oriented frame of reference for ascertaining the functions of Biblical Hebrew wordorder variation. The discourse-pragmatic and cognitive-functional notion of information-structure serves as the basis for the theoretical framework employed in the present investigation. Information-structure is principally concerned with the question as to why grammars of natural language offer speakers a variety of morphosyntactic and prosodic options for expressing the same propositional content. Since the Left-Dislocation construction is a universal syntactic phenomenon, typological information regarding the form and function of Left-Dislocation constructions across languages served as a critical source of insight into the prototypical formal features and functional domains of the construction within Biblical Hebrew. The insights garnered from cross-linguistic data informed the parameters employed in the construction and construal of a random data-set of one hundred cases of Left-Dislocation drawn from the narrative portions of the Hebrew Bible stretching from Genesis to 2 Chronicles. The investigation of our data-set, within the confines of a discourse-pragmatic framework, reveals that Left-Dislocation constructions in Biblical Hebrew are principally employed to facilitate the topic-promotion of identifiable but inactive discourse-referents. These referents could be the primary or secondary topics of the sentences in which they are used.