Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 53:1 (NA 2002)
Article: Modality, Reference And Speech Acts In The Psalms
Author: Andrew Warren

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TynBul 53:1 (2002) p. 149

Modality, Reference And Speech Acts In The Psalms1

Andy Warren

This study takes the results of linguistic and form-critical work on the biblical Psalms, together with some of the findings of comparative linguistics in the fields of modality and speech acts, to look at forms of reference and modality in the Psalms, focussing particularly on Interrogative, Negative, and Imperative sentence-types. Amongst the most significant results are a full reanalysis of the Hebrew verbal system, primarily in terms of modality (Table 2), and a more systematic distinction between different types of cohortatives (Table 1) and jussives.

The Introduction (ch. 1) firstly surveys the work which has already been done on the distinctive lexis (Tsevat), morphology, and syntax (Sappan) of the Psalter, as well as work in sociolinguistics (Finley, Wilt), formulaic language (Culley), and form-criticism (Gunkel, Westermann, Aejmelaeus, etc.). Then an overview is given of some of the categories and terminology standardly used in some fields of comparative linguistic semantics and pragmatics (Lyons, Levinson), including communication theory, speech-act theory (Austin, Searle) and the study of modality (Palmer). Structuralist method in the study of Biblical Hebrew (Collins, Prinsloo) is considered, as are some of the recent studies of Biblical Hebrew Narrative syntax (Richter, Talstra; Schneider, Niccacci; Andersen, Longacre), as the background to the present treatment of Discourse. The approach taken here is that

discourse functions [of individual verbal forms] are secondary, contextual applications of a more basic temporal, aspectual or modal function. Discourse functions are not inherent to the verbal form, but to the clauses within which the verbal form is incorporated.2

TynBul 53:1 (2002) p. 150

Reference (ch. 2) considers two distinct features. The first is the pragmatic function of exophoric ‘reference’ to real-world context, particularly in terms of participant reference, the use of the three grammatical persons to refer to the three rhetorical persons (or ‘actants’—the Psalmist, the enemy, and God) and the difference between reference by name, description, pronoun, and verbal morphology. The second is the syntactic function of endophoric ‘relation’ to linguistic cotext; this covers all kinds of deixis, nominal and adverbial, and requires a discussion of pronoun topicalisation and its most frequent function, adversativity (as in wa’^anî).

Mood (ch. 3) considers the cross-linguistic feature properly termed ‘modality’, which may be described as the ...

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