Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS LINGUISTICS AND BIBLICAL HEBREW. Walter R. Bodine, ed. Pp. x + 323. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1992. Cloth, $34.50. The premise of this volume is that analyses of the language of the Bible ought to be "commensurate with those advanced for comparable phenomena in other languages, and they must be subject to the same standards of evaluation" (p. 191). Because linguistic facts fonn a language system, "it is illegitimate to analyze any piece of data independently of the systems of which it constitutes an element" (p. 206). Philologists, however, have often failed to incorporate the insights of modem linguistics in their research on the biblical text because of the predisposition of linguistics to a synchronic analysis of spoken language and the inherently diachronic nature of the biblical data. This volume attempts to introduce the discipline of linguistics to philologists and to illustrate the validity and utility of linguistics for a description and elucidation of the language of the biblical text (p. 2). It is, perhaps, most important for biblical scholars to consider the plethora of factors apart from questions of textual transmission which contribute to linguistic variation within the text: phonological conditioning (including the selective application or non-application of phonological rules), morphophonemic processes, diachronic change, regional dialects, and discourse strategies. Following the editor's brief introduction to "The Study of Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew" (pp. 1-5), the volume is structured along the lines of the major divisions of linguistics, with sections on phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse analysis, historicaVcomparative linguistics, and graphemics. The initial essay in each section introduces the linguistic field to scholars of Biblical Hebrew; the following essay illustrates the application of that linguistic field to Biblical Hebrew. Most of the essays in the volume were delivered during 1983-1987 at the Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew unit of the annual Society of Biblical Literature meetings and are published without substantial revision. A basic bibliography is included, which covers the linguistic analysis of Biblical Hebrew in each of the linguistic fields discussed in the volume with additional sections covering poetry and translation. The volume concludes with extensive indices of authorities and biblical citations. The first (and most extensive) section treats phonology in its two main branches: descriptive phonology and generative phonology. Although these Hebrew Studies 36 (1995) 124 Reviews are historically the major branches of phonology and thus foundational for the linguistic study of sound systems, philologists would have benefited from an additional essay surveying the full range of phonological theory and including, in particular, autosegmental phonology. Devens' essay ("What Descriptive Phonologists Do: One Approach to the Study of Language, with Particular Attention to Biblical Hebrew," (pp. 7-16) introduces the terminology, methodology, and goals of descriptive phonology, with particular attention to the problem of phonetic and phonemic interpretation of the masoretic text. Revell presents a fme example of descriptive phonology in "The Development of SegOi in an Open Syllable as a Reflex of *a: An Exercise in Descriptive Phonology" (pp. 1728 ), in which he argues that the three reflexes of *a in open syllables (parall, segOi , and qame$) represent stages in a single process of development which was conditioned by the total phonological environment and not just the following sound (p. 26). In "An Introduction to a Generative Phonology of Biblical Hebrew" (pp. 29-40) Greenstein clearly presents the theoretical underpinnings of the generative method with Biblical Hebrew examples. He interacts with some of the particular problems inherent in a generative approach to Biblical Hebrew (especially the question of masoretic vocalization and its relationship to a spoken language) and illustrates the value of an abstract analysis. Enos explores these problems with respect to the guttural consonants in "Phonological Considerations in the Study of Hebrew Phonetics: An Introductory Discussion" (pp. 41-47). Garr's essay, "The Linguistic Study of Morphology" (pp. 49-64), provides a classic introduction to morphology and morphophonemics with copious Biblical Hebrew examples. Rendsburg compiles examples of morphological variation within the text to differentiate sociolinguistic communities in "Morphological Evidence for Regional Dialects in Ancient Hebrew" (pp. 65-88). These two fine articles could have been in separate sections: Garr's essay followed by a study of a discrete morphological problem and Rendsburg's...