Midwest SBL Paper Download
I am back from the Midwest SBL regional meeting this weekend. My paper went well, though about half the room glazed over and began drooling before I was even out of the introduction (linguistics isn’t for everyone). The meeting was very welcoming and I met some very nice colleagues, professors and grad students alike. It was also nice to meet fellow bibliobloggers James McGrath, Michael Halcomb, and J Brian Tucker.
As promised, here is the .pdf for the paper I delivered Saturday morning.
February 15, 2010 at 10:31 pm
My wife is going to be so excited to read this (and I’m already excited)! Thanks, Peter!
If I was still in the Midwest, I probably would have been on the edge of my seat through your paper.
I love this first note:
See James Barr, “’Determination’ and the Definite Article in Biblical Hebrew,” JSS 34/2 (1989): 308, who notes that the more comprehensive German grammars of Bergsträsser and also Bauer and Leander never made it to syntax
at all.”
Can a grammar be comprehensive if it doesn’t make it to syntax!?! I got a good laugh out of that — though sadly, it true for more than just Hebrew “comprehensive” grammars…
February 15, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Ha, I didn’t catch that. I don’t remember if those were Barr’s words or my paraphrase.
February 15, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Great paper, Peter. I interact with it here:
http://ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com/ancient_hebrew_poetry/2010/02/peter-bekins-hits-a-home-run-with-his-midwest-sbl-paper.html
February 16, 2010 at 12:25 am
I like the clarity of your presentation – thanks. I would not have gone to sleep if I had been there :)
February 16, 2010 at 12:39 am
but I would have asked some questions. Notably, I can’t see ‘line’ as optimum analog for identifying all possible linguistic uses of ‘the’. Frame is a useful concept. I get from your paper that definiteness may be used to confirm in story that a frame has been created by the raconteur. In the prior sentence of this comment there is a generic definiteness to raconteur because the anarthrous ‘story’ implies a story-teller.
If I met a definite Hebrew article, I would probably translate it into English for exactly that reason. So far I mostly work with poetry and I have often been faced with wanting a definite in English where there is not one in Hebrew, but never the reverse. I am glad to see the problem more clearly. Thanks
February 16, 2010 at 1:02 am
Bob, by “line” I assume you are referring to my linear identifiability scale. Identifiability is only the prototypical use of the definite article, there are also secondary semantic and syntactic uses, so I would agree that all cases cannot be put on the line.
February 17, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Thanks for this Peter, it was good to speak with you as well.
March 1, 2010 at 10:04 am
[...] Peter Bekins of בלשנות literally had the audience drooling over linguistics at the Midwest SBL. [...]