A discourse analysis perspective on the syntax of clauses negated by lo' in the Primary History.

摘要

In this dissertation the syntax of clauses negated by lo ' is examined, with special attention to the perspective of discourse analysis. The corpus is the Primary History, the Hebrew Bible from Genesis through Kings. Ha&d11;lo&d4; ' is not included. The approach to discourse analysis is primarily functional; formal aspects are applied as a control.;It was found that, with a few notional exceptions, lo' hayah is generally interchangeable with ' en with regard to both semantics and macrosyntax. Modals, such as yakol, are mostly negated, because they explain why something did not take place. When something happens, the reasons are assumed; it is when something does not happen that the reader wants to know why. The negation of a word that is inherently negative, such as ' azab "forsake," produces a circumlocution that emphasizes the action. This construction generally occurs in the context of other indications of emphasis.;A clause with nothing before lo' other than the conjunction, and nothing between lo' and the verb, is unmarked for macrosyntactic function and can be on the main storyline. However, the writer sometimes takes advantage of the intrinsic formal disjunction and employs a negative clause as a macrosyntactic marker. Such clauses are almost always off-line for some other reason (e.g., they are paraphrastic or antithetical) or followed by other off-line clauses.;Negative clauses function in certain clause sequences: we 'im lo' can be a negative alternative protasis; syndetic negative clauses can be telic, especially in hortatory contexts; as expected, negatives figure prominently in antithetical, restrictive, and concessive sequences.;With respect to sociolinguistics, negative clauses also function prominently in terminating utterances expressing rejection, and statements of non-compliance. However, negative clauses are not as frequent in continuing utterances as might be expected.;The broad meaning and immediate function of a particular clause is generally the same regardless of the genre of its context. However, the macrosyntactic function and specific contextual meaning of a clause will differ depending on the genre.