Analysis of the frequency and distribution of the Hebrew compound clause in Kings

Since the introduction of the concept of the compound clause into biblical Hebrew studies in the late nineteenth century, grammars of biblical Hebrew have presented various and often conflicting descriptions of the uses of the compound clause. Various attempts at harmonization have been made. These include combinations of the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of the clause type. The discussion is made difficult by the presence of the compound clause in various genres of the Hebrew Bible. The clause type is found at various communication levels and may serve many different functionalities within the text.;This investigation will analyze the frequency and distribution of the compound clause in the narratives of the book of Kings. It will focus on the aspect of syntax at the level of the text. "Distribution" is a term used in linguistics to describe the relative position of occurrences of a linguistic element with respect to the whole text. "Frequency" is simply the number of occurrences of the linguistic element. The clause will be analyzed as a constituent of the text rather than in isolation. By examining the frequency and distribution of the compound clause, this study will endeavor to generate "rules" which describe the conditions under which one might expect to find this type of clause in the text of the book of Kings. These rules will be descriptive, not prescriptive.;Chapter one states the purpose of the study, which is to find, collect, tag and describe the frequency and distribution of compound clauses in a selected biblical Hebrew narrative. The chapter then discusses methodological issues. A discussion of clause theory relevant to the compound clause is presented. This is followed by a discussion of the advantages of a database approach to reveal the frequency and distribution of the compound clause in Hebrew narrative. A description of the methods used to collect data for the study and a defense of the strategy of recording only surface data in the database is presented. Finally, a discussion is presented describing how "expectations" governing the use of the compound clause are generated from the data collected.;Chapter two provides an analysis of the database. The data concerning the compound clause is presented in various formats. Each of the formats underscores specific aspects of the data with a view to developing expectations that inform the reader concerning the use of the compound clause. For instance, x+ qatal clauses comprise 19.5% of the narrative clauses in Kings.;Chapter three presents an analysis of the data with a view to understanding how the biblical author used the compound clause to accomplish various syntactical and textual strategies in the narrative. Here the taxonomy of the types of compound clauses is presented. Attention is given to marked clauses, inverted clauses, closed clauses and those indicating change of participant, place or time. Here the functionalities of the compound clause emerge. Several patterns of usage of the compound clause emerge from the patterns evident in the database.;The fourth chapter synthesizes the data. The synthesis formulates the text-linguistic expectations that inform the reader concerning the author's use of the compound clause in this text. Thirteen expectations are developed that reflect the various functionalities that emerge from analysis of the patterns revealed by the database. The first three expectations, and the corollary to the second, deal with the clustering of these clauses, the remainder of the expectations deal with individual types of x+qatal clauses or with closed clauses.;The concluding chapter discusses the surface level analysis accomplished by the database approach and the methodology adopted for collecting the data. The use of the database approach revealed a number of the textual strategies the author employed to give meaning to the text beyond the level of the clause. The expectations developed to explain the textual strategies are compared and explained in light of those developed using traditional exegetical methods. The concluding chapter presents a summary discussion of the functionality of the x+qatal clause.