Vocative Syntax in Biblical Hebrew Prose and Poetry: A Preliminary Analysis

Abstract

Vocatives are syntactically interesting items. On the one hand, they are intonationally part of a host sentence. On the other hand, they are only loosely linked syntactically with their host sentence and are not integrated into it as a clausal constituent. Previous descriptions of the vocative in Biblical Hebrew have largely considered the internal syntax of the vocative (e.g. the kinds of constituents that can be used as vocatives). The external syntax of the vocative, however, has been largely ignored. This article considers the external syntax of the vocative with respect to the locations in the host sentence that can serve as a niche for the vocative as an extrasentential element. Special attention is paid to the significant ways in which prose and poetry differ in this respect.