Abstract
Biblical Hebrew scholars struggle to account for about one third of instances of fronting in the Hebrew Bible in terms of a coherent semantic-pragmatic model. I hypothesize that considering fronting as a construction (i.e. a form-meaning pair) that could encode various semantic-pragmatic functions, including “exhaustive exclusion”, could be one of the solutions to this challenge.
Highlights
When a non-verbal clause constituent precedes the verb, such construction is called an instance of fronting (Van der Merwe 2013: 931-935) and is considered as a marked construction (Van der Merwe, Naudé and Kroeze 2017: 491-493)
In the Hebrew Bible the majority of the finite verbal clauses commence with a verb
There are a few instances where the events referred to by verbal clauses with fronted subjects display a relationship of simultaneity (7)
Summary
When a non-verbal clause constituent precedes the verb, such construction is called an instance of fronting (Van der Merwe 2013: 931-935) and is considered as a marked construction (Van der Merwe, Naudé and Kroeze 2017: 491-493). Two out of three of these marked constructions in Biblical Hebrew can typically be explained from an information structure point of view.1 A fronted constituent typically represents the selection of one or other alternative from a set.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
