Book section : Chapter
Main clause verbs are prosodically weaker than nouns in the Tiberian cantillation of Biblical Hebrew prose books
- Abstract:
- The study investigates the relationship between prosodic strength and word class in three prose Biblical Hebrew books (Genesis, Exodus and 1 Kings). At the morpheme level, prepositions and the object marker are found to be prosodically weakest, while nominal forms are prosodically strongest. Adverbs and verbs sit between these positions. At the syntactic level the relationship between surface word order and the strength of prosodic boundaries between high-level main clause constituents in sentences consisting of S, V, O and PP elements is considered. The deepest phonological divide in SVO sentences corresponds to the division between subject and predicate. In all other word orders, V is incorporated into the following prosodic phrase, regardless of the syntactic role of the constituent. I propose that prosodic status, on the level of the word / morpheme is a function of the degree to which the morpheme contributes semantic, as opposed to grammatical, information.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 4.4MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.11647/obp.0498.05
Authors
Contributors
+ Fedeli, A
- Role:
- Editor
+ Khan, G
- Role:
- Editor
- ORCID:
- 0000-0002-2550-9896
+ Lundberg, J
- Institution:
- University of Oxford
- Division:
- HUMS
- Department:
- Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
- Role:
- Editor
+ European Research Council
More from this funder
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/0472cxd90
- Grant:
- 885040
- Publisher:
- Open Book Publishers
- Host title:
- The Intertwined World of the Oral and Written Transmission of Sacred Traditions in the Middle East
- Pages:
- 173-228
- Series:
- Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
- Series number:
- 40
- Publication date:
- 2025-11-06
- Edition:
- 1
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2632-6914
- ISSN:
-
2632-6906
- EISBN:
- 9781805117421
- ISBN:
- 9781805117414
- Language:
-
English
- Subtype:
-
Chapter
- Pubs id:
-
2321917
- UUID:
-
uuid_cd438f0d-2d7c-4f7d-b194-656dd77ece2e
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2321917
- Source identifiers:
-
W4415956009
- Deposit date:
-
2025-11-10
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Fedeli et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- © 2025 Alba Fedeli, Geoffrey Khan and Johan Lundberg (eds). This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute, and transmit the text; to adapt the text for non-commercial purposes of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
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