Júda Ronén

Abstract

Description of the syntactical structures in Old English, in which the demonstrative pronouns (se and ðis) occur independently of a following nominal phrase: structural classification, characterization and analysis of their internal structure and their function in the text by a comprehensive examination of the examples in the corpus, Ælfric’s Lives of Saints.

Such an exhaustive survey of the relevant examples in a text of this length has never been done. A clearer, more complete profile of the functions of the pronouns in question emerges from it, with hitherto undescribed findings. These contribute to a subtler understanding of Ælfric’s language, on a structural linguistic basis.

Abstract

In 1588 William Morgan published his monumental Welsh translation of the Bible. This work is notable, among other aspects, in that it has the Old Testament translated directly from the original Hebrew. This fact invites comparative study of the Welsh and Hebrew texts, which may shed light on the Welsh text and language, the translation process, and (the translator’s reading of) the original text.

In this paper I will attempt a close examination of the lexical means by which Morgan translated Hebrew phrases concerning the senses (chiefly verbs of perception). The Hebrew and the Welsh lexicon and grammar are structured differently; that obliges the translator to make constant meaning-bearing choices, interpreting the text according to their reading thereof. Structural description of Morgan’s lexical choices will be at the heart of the paper.

I hope the proposed description, which is based on formal linguistic grounds and aims at understanding (Bible) translations through the lens of structural linguistic analysis, will contribute to our understanding of the 1588 Bible and its language.

(This paper broadens the scope of a paper delivered at ICCS14, in which the semantic field of ‘hearing’ was in focus. Attendance at the previous paper is not required nor assumed.)

Abstract

In 1588 William Morgan published his monumental Welsh translation of the Bible. In this impressive work the Old Testament was translated from the original Hebrew. This fact invites contrastive study of the Welsh and Hebrew texts, which may shed light on the Welsh text and language, the translation process, and (the translator’s reading of) the original text.

In this paper I will attempt a close examination of the semantic field of ‘hearing’ in the Welsh translation of the Pentateuch in comparison with the Hebrew text. Special attention will be given to the means by which Morgan translated the Hebrew verb šmʿ (‘hear’), using the Welsh lexemes clywed and gwrando. Apart from some neutralising environments, there seems to be a meaning-bearing lexical opposition between clywed and gwrando: a meaningful choice the translator had to make every time he encountered this Hebrew verb. I hope the proposed description, which is based on formal-structural grounds and aims at understanding (Bible) translations through the lens of structural linguistic analysis, will contribute to our understanding of the 1588 Bible and its language.

Abstract

Dialogue is a key element in narration: be it a fairy tale, a short story or a novel, the characters usually speak. In literary text, dialogue and narrative are closely interwoven.

Some syntactic features of the interface between narrative and dialogue in Modern Literary Welsh will be examined in this paper, on the basis of Te yn y Grug (1959) by Kate Roberts (1891–1985). This text-linguistic domain is hitherto unexplored in Welsh.

Narrative and dialogue (Erzählen and Besprechen in Weinrich 1971; histoires and discours in Benveniste 1971) are two principal and complex textemes (that is, signalled and bounded units manifesting distinctive and complete (sub-)systems of grammar). Studying the mutual connections between them is of great importance to both general linguistics and our understanding of the text-grammatical system of Welsh (and of Te yn y Grug in particular).

Abstract

Old English has two demonstrative pronouns, se, seo, þæt and þes, þeos, þis. This talk surveys their core functions in an independent status (i.e. not functioning as a determiner accompanied by a nominal phrase), distribution, structural features and the relation between them.

The examined corpus is Ælfric’s (c. 955 – c. 1010) Lives of Saints, a collection of about forty vitae and passiones of saints and sermons, all written in rich and idiomatic Old English. This long, interesting and varied collection gives us the opportunity to observe the ways in which the author made use of the available ‘linguistic toolbox’ in diverse text-types; in our case, the demonstrative pronouns.

An examination of all occurrences of the said pronouns in the corpus — a little less than a thousand for both pronouns — reveals they can be categorized into a relatively small number of textual-structural functions. Some of these are unexpected, such as taking part in introducing new characters into narrative or mediating in the interface between the end of a text and its doxology. By describing the pronouns’ distribution and features the structural difference between them is apparent. After isolating the syntactic and textual environments in which they do not stand in opposition, it turns out the cases of genuine selectability between them are quite limited.

After the main part — presenting the complex and elegant linguistic system emerging from examining Ælfric’s writing — I will conclude the talk with a short general methodological discussion concerning organizing and presenting a large number of examples (as in our case) using digital tools.

The presented research was served as the basis for my master’s thesis, which I wrote in the Department of Linguistics at the Hebrew University. The thesis, written in Hebrew, is available at the library’s database (system № 990019514640203701) or from here (two volumes in one file):
https://ac.digitalwords.net/digital/mathesis.pdf

The talk will be given in Hebrew, with detailed slides in English:
https://ac.digitalwords.net/#seminars-2018-05-08

Abstract

Dialogue is a key element in narration: be it a fairy tale, a short story or a novel, the characters usually speak. In literary text, dialogue and narrative are closely interwoven.

Some syntactic features of the interface between narrative and dialogue in Modern Literary Welsh will be examined in this paper, on the basis of Te yn y Grug (1959) by Kate Roberts (1891–1985). This text-linguistic domain is hitherto unexplored in Welsh.

Narrative and dialogue (Erzählen and Besprechen in Weinrich 1971; histoires and discours in Benveniste 1971) are two principal and complex textemes (that is, signalled and bounded units manifesting distinctive and complete (sub-)systems of grammar). Studying the mutual connections between them is of great importance to both general linguistics and our understanding of the text-grammatical system of Welsh (and of Te yn y Grug in particular).

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