The Syntax of Volitives in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite Prose by Hélène Dallaire

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Syntax of Volitives in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite Prose by Hélène Dallaire Andrew D. Gross hélène dallaire, The Syntax of Volitives in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite Prose (Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 9; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014). Pp. xi + 250. $49.50. Dallaire’s monograph, a revised and updated version of her Hebrew Union College doctoral dissertation (2002), systematically explores how Biblical Hebrew prose expresses volition, that is to say, wishes, desires, requests, and commands. Furthermore, to place the development of this means of expression in a diachronic context, she similarly examines the expression of volitives in the language of the fourteenth-century b.c.e. Amarna letters. In her introductory chapter, D. explains the monograph’s methodology and corpus and then sets about defining certain core linguistic concepts, including modality and volitives. This chapter also covers some basic concepts in sociolinguistics, as D.’s analysis also considers how languages encode social differences between speaker and audience (e.g., a person of greater stature speaking to one of lesser stature). Finally, it includes a brief overview of how volitives are expressed morphologically in Akkadian, Classical Arabic, and Classical Ethiopic. In chap. 2, the largest part of the book, D. covers Biblical Hebrew prose, considering in turn the verbal forms usually associated with volitive moods (imperative, jussive, and cohortative) as well as nonvolitive verbal forms that are sometimes used to express volitives (yiqtol, qatal, and the infinitive absolute). After a survey of recent views on Biblical Hebrew’s overall system of expressing volitives, D. turns to the Biblical Hebrew imperative, which is the longest section of the chapter. Her analysis covers both diachronic questions, such as the origins of the long imperative form and the particle nāʾ, and synchronic ones. Among this latter group, she pays special attention to sequences of verbs in which an imperative is followed by other verbal forms, both volitive and nonvolitive. She then continues with a similar method of analysis for the other above-mentioned verbal forms. Some of the conclusions she reaches are the following: (1) The long imperative, the cohortative, and the particle nāʾ derive from the energic form yaqtulan(na), with the -na having separated off at some point to become an independent particle. (2) The regular imperative is the least marked form and therefore can be used in the broadest number of situations. Clauses using the long imperative or the particle nāʾ, on the other hand, are marked for politeness or respect. (3) Commands expressed by imperatives generally concern actions within an immediate or short-term time frame, while those expressed by the infinitive absolute convey injunctions to be performed within a long-term framework. This use of the infinitive absolute is unsurprisingly more common in legal and instructional material, and because these commands come from an authority figure (e.g., God or Moses), they never use the particle nāʾ. In chap. 3, D. tackles the system of volitives in El Amarna Canaanite. The chapter, which is briefer than the one on Biblical Hebrew, begins with some introductory remarks on the language of the Amarna letters and on its verbal system in particular. Then D. analyzes the various forms used in Amarna Akkadian to express volitives: the imperative, the West Semitic jussive (yqtl-Ø), the Akkadian precative (liprus), and the yaqtula. As in the previous chapter, she also considers instances of nonvolitive forms expressing the volitive, as well as how sequences of verbs express volitive ideas. A short concluding chapter summarizes D.’s main observations and fleshes them out a bit with evidence from other Northwest Semitic languages. [End Page 117] Dallaire takes particular interest in the role that the Canaanite yaqtula conjugation plays in the expression of volitives in Biblical Hebrew. She notes several cases in which a nonjussive Hebrew yiqtol is used as a volitive and argues that this use derives from the earlier yaqtula conjugation. After the loss of short, final vowels erased any morphological distinction between the indicative yaqtulu and the volitive yaqtula, these forms merged in Biblical Hebrew. According to D., the prefix conjugation retained both the indicative and volitive uses (pp. 125–29). She further notes...