Papers by Stephen Levinsohn
Revista Colombiana de Antropología
Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session
This paper distinguishes three ways in which speech is reported in the Greek of John's Gospel: di... more This paper distinguishes three ways in which speech is reported in the Greek of John's Gospel: directly (without the complementizer êti), indirectly (with êti and appropriate changes to first and second person references), and in 'êti-direct' form (i.e., with êti but without changes to first and second person references). The default way of reporting speech in Koine Greek is directly. Typically, when using direct speech, the reporter purports to reproduce the original speech verbatim. When in indirect form, the speech is not reported verbatim and/or is backgrounded with respect to what follows. The êtidirect form is used to signal that the speech culminates some unit. When a reported speech is embedded in another reported speech, however, the use of êti may be influenced also by the presence of êti in the immediate context. When êti follows the formula ‡mÑn ‡mÑn l™gw soi/Ãm²n 'truly truly I say to you', it signals that the assertion concerned makes explicit some previous point. When a speech or writing is reported in Ancient or Koine Greek using the orienter verbs l™gw/e¹pon 'say/said' or gr€fw 'write', the author has the option of inserting the complementizer 1 êti between the orienter and the reported speech.
Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session
When Dorothy Sayers uses also in her novel The Documents in the Case, this indicates that the mat... more When Dorothy Sayers uses also in her novel The Documents in the Case, this indicates that the material that is added is at least as important as that to which it is added. She uses moreover, as Blakemore (1987) has observed, to indicate that the material that is added provides further evidence for a recently stated conclusion. Too is the 'elsewhere' additive. Sayers uses it when the information that is added confirms or contradicts a previous utterance or assumption. She also uses it when the material concerned is of lesser or greater importance than that to which it is added. This paper claims that Dorothy Sayers uses the additives also, too, and moreover in distinct ways in her novel The Documents in the Case. In particular, she uses also when the material she is adding is at least as important as that to which she is adding it. She uses moreover when the material she is adding provides further evidence for a conclusion that she has already stated (see Blakemore 1987:91-97). She uses too in a variety of situations: when the added information confirms or contradicts a previous assertion or assumption, and when the added material is less important or more important than the material to which it is being added. In other words, too is the 'elsewhere' additive, employed whenever the only constraint being imposed is that the material concerned is to be added to corresponding material stated in or implied by the context. The paper begins (§1) by stating the relative frequency of also, too, and moreover in specific situations. § §2-3 distinguish their functions in these situations. §4 briefly discusses the significance of putting also in different positions in the sentence. An appendix lists, together with their contexts, all the examples of the three additives in Sayers' book that do not feature in the body of the paper.
Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session
An analysis of Hebrew topicalization looks at the normal or unmarked function of topicalization i... more An analysis of Hebrew topicalization looks at the normal or unmarked function of topicalization in narrative discourse and considers tha additional contextual effects that marked or apparently redundant instances of topicalization are intended to achieve. Focus is on the fronting of elements in sentences with topic-comment articulation. It is argued that while earlier characterization of topicalization as bieirectional is appropriate, it is also the case that topicalization provides the basis for linking the communication to its context. Topicalization and discontinuities in storyline are then considered. A proposal that all topicalized sentences in Hebrew are backgrounded is then refuted, and examples of marked topicalization (i.e., passages in which there is no evidence of a discontinuity in the story yet topicalization occurs) are examined. IC. is concluded that the intended effect of marked topicalization is to highlight a key event to follow. Thirteen notes and a 19-item bibliography are included. (MSE) *
Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session
A study examined the presence or absence of the article with proper names for people in the Bible... more A study examined the presence or absence of the article with proper names for people in the Bible's book of Acts, using four categories of description, including: (1) the unmarked patterns involving the first mention of a participant and furthe: references to the participant in the same incident; (2) the reintroduction of participants after an absence; (3) further references to a participant in the same incident that arP Inarttrous as contrasted with arthrous; and (4) the use of the artic-,e with names in reported speeches. It is proposed that, in different contexts, the four situations illustrate the principle that anarthrous references to particular, known participants either mark the participant as locally salient or highlight the speech that he or she utters. A list of twelve references is included. (MSE)
Anarthrous References to the Holy Spirit: Another Factor
The Bible Translator
Review Article: Participants in Old Testament Texts and the Translator: Reference Devices and Their Rhetorical ImpactDe RegtLénart J.Participants in Old Testament Texts and the Translator: Reference Devices and their Rhetorical Impact. Studia Semitica Neerlandica. Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorc...
The Bible Translator
Reasoning Styles and Types of Hortatory Discourse
The Interrogative in Inga (Quechuan)
International Journal of American Linguistics, 1972
... 1.1. In conversation, direct or reported, the speaker pauses as soon as he phrases his questi... more ... 1.1. In conversation, direct or reported, the speaker pauses as soon as he phrases his question, to allow for the reply. The only ex-4For a full presentation of the phonology, grammar, texts and lexicon, see Levinsohn, SH: The Inga Language (in press, Mouton & Co., The Hague ...
Checking Translations for Discourse Features
... Similarly, most of the hortatory material in the Bible is given by people who have the author... more ... Similarly, most of the hortatory material in the Bible is given by people who have the authority to instruct the exhortee (eg, God or an apostle). In ... koonni. Dakam pun atta tagu inonnoogni pas-oman, yakon ak Apodios pas-omanni. ...
Filologia Neotestamentaria, 2010
Porter's analysis of the prominence conveyed by the aorist, imperfect and present is contrasted w... more Porter's analysis of the prominence conveyed by the aorist, imperfect and present is contrasted with Longacre's claims about the same tense-forms. Both are wrong in equating respectively "foreground" (Porter) and "background" (Longacre) with the imperfect. Relevance Theory claims that non-default forms may result in a variety of cognitive effects. This explains why imperfectives correlate with background, yet sometimes have foregrounding effects. Additional non-default forms and structures can also be accomodated, such as inchoative aorist ἤρξαντο and the combination of aorist ἐγένετο and a temporal expression. Finally, a non-default form or structure may give prominence not to the event concerned, but to the following event(s). Most narratives in the Gospels employ more than one "tense-form" 2 . If we concentrate on the narrative events themselves, we usually find that most of them are presented with the aorist, while others are encoded with the imperfect, the historical present (HP) and, occasionally, the perfect and pluperfect. Stanley E. Porter and Robert E. Longacre have both made proposals about the effect of using these different tense-forms. 3 They agree that "the aorist tense-form characterizes the mainline or storyline of narrative discourse" 4 . When it comes to the "prominence" or "dynamicity" 5 of the tense-forms, however, they hold very different positions, as the following table shows 6 .
Some Notes on the Information Structure and Discourse Features of Exodus 1.1-12.15
Self-instruction materials on narrative discourse analysis
... texts, its boundaries are usually characterised by silence and a change of intonation contour... more ... texts, its boundaries are usually characterised by silence and a change of intonation contour. ... Appendices to the chapter present sample charts for discourses in languages with SOV and ... I well remember a student eliciting paradigms during a training course and wondering why ...
Relative Clauses in Tadaksahak
Page 1. Relative Clauses in Tadaksahak Regula Christiansen and Stephen H. Levinsohn SIL Internati... more Page 1. Relative Clauses in Tadaksahak Regula Christiansen and Stephen H. Levinsohn SIL International 2003 Page 2. 2 Contents 1 General features 1.1The position of the relative clause with respect to the noun it modifies 1.2 Kinds of relativization strategies ...
Towards a Typology of Story Development Marking (Repeatedly Naming the Subject: The Hebrew Equivalent of Greek ∆έ)
... Discourse considerations in translating the Word of God. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. Cook, John ... more ... Discourse considerations in translating the Word of God. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. Cook, John A. 2004. The semantics of verbal pragmatics: Clarifying the roles of wayyiqtol and weqatal inBiblical Hebrew prose. Journal of Semitic Studies 49:24773. Diessel, Holger. 2001. ...
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Hebrew Studies, 2011
The Structure of Hebrews: A Text-Linguistic Analysisby George H. Guthrie
Textual Connections in Acts
Journal of Biblical Literature, 1989
At least three discourse-related areas of exegesis tend not to be handled satisfactorily in many ... more At least three discourse-related areas of exegesis tend not to be handled satisfactorily in many commentaries: the order of constituents in the clause and sentence, the presence versus absence of the article with nouns, and the significance of the conjunctions used. This paper first shows how insights from the work of Simon Dik, Jan Firbas and Knud Lambrecht have contributed
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Papers by Stephen Levinsohn