An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

3.3.4 Discourse and Text
a Most linguists take as the upper boundary of their field of study the sentence,
consigning consideration of larger units to folklorists or literary critics. Semitists,
as noted earlier, have tended to focus on the clause. Thus the study of syntax is
taken as the study of the use of individual words, phrases, and clauses. Relatively
recently, however, a number of theorists have expressed dissatisfaction with this
limitation. In part they have been prompted by a desire to study systematically
certain facets of language use that philosophers, anthropologists, and literary
critics have observed. These scholars have seen that contextual or enunciative
determination of a clause’s meaning follows certain patterns. Politeness, for
example, has distinct linguistic consequences and, it is argued, linguistics should
be able to describe them. In part, those who would reject the standard limits on
linguistics are motivated by a desire to clarify problems of reference: the system
of pronouns, for example, cannot be examined properly in isolated sentences, but
only over a series of sentences.
b Discourse analysis or text linguistics is a relatively new field of study based on
these efforts to go beyond the sentence. Robert Longacre states the case for
discourse grammar forcefully:
In earlier work, discourse analysis was regarded as an option open to the student of a
language provided that he was interested, and provided that he had a good start on the
structure of lower levels (word, phrase, clause). But…all work…on lower levels is
lacking in perspective and meets inevitable frustration when the higher levels—
especially discourse and paragraph—have not been analyzed. One can describe the
verb morphology of a language but where does one use a given verb form?…One can
describe linear permutations of predicate, subject, and object, but what factors control
alternative word orderings? One can call the roster of sentence-initial conjunctions,
but where does one use which?…To answer these and other problems one needs
discourse perspective.
In view of these considerations, discourse analysis emerges not as an option or as a
luxury for the serious student of a language but as a necessity. 20 [Page 54]
In light of these claims, we must cautiously defend the more traditional path
followed in this grammar. Unquestionably a phrase or sentence is but a part of a
20 Quoted in Wilbur Pickering, A Framework for Discourse Analysis (SIL Publications
in Linguistics 64; Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas
at Arlington, 1980) 4. See also R. E. Longacre, ed., Theory and Application in
Processing Texts in Non-Indoeuropean Languages (Papiere zur Textlinguistik 43;
Hamburg: Buske, 1984); and Longacre’s own analysis of Hebrew, Joseph, A Story of
Divine Providence: A Text Theoretical and Textlinguistic Analysis of Genesis 37 and
39–48 (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1989).