Proverbial poetry: its settings and syntax
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10:29a PscPS 11:29b PscSP 12:13a PPscS 12:15a SPscP 14:22b PscS 15:21a SPscP 15:23a PscPP 15:24a SPscP 0.3% (0 cases) 12:9a Aug Comp 15:4b SPsc 11:31b S 122 Total = 2 O'Connor #13 15:12b PV 122 0.5% (245 cases; 20%) 10:2a VS 123 10:3b OV 123 10:4b SV 123 10:7b SV 123 10:8b SV 123 10:10b SV 123 Total = 58 O'Connor #14 10:24b SV 123 15.8% (229 cases; 19%) 10:27b SV 123 10:28b SV 123 10:31b SV 123 10:32b SV 123 11:3a SVO 123 11:3b SVO 123 11:6a SVO 123 11:6b PV 123 11:7b SV 123 11:11b PV 123 11:12b SV 123 11:15b SPsc 123 11:17b VOS 123 11:30b SPsc 123 11:25a SV 123 12:2b OV 123 12:3b SV 123 12:6b SVO 123 12:7b SV 123 12:12b SV 123 12:17b SO 123 12:19b PS 123 12:24a SV 123 12:25b SVO 123 12:26b SVO 123 12:28a PPsc 123 12:28b PPsc 123 13:4b SV 123 13:2b SO 123 13:9a SV 123 13:9b SV 123 13:14b P 123 13:25b SV 123 14:3b SVO 123 14:5a SV 123 14:7a VP 123 14:7b VO 123 14:11a SV 123 14:11b SV 123 14:14b PS 123 14:17b SV 123 14:19b SP 123 14:22a VS 123 14:23b PO 123 14:27b P 123 14:33b PV 123 15:22b PV 123 15:24b VP 123 15:25b VO 123 15:29b OV 123 15:31b PV 123 13:1a SO 124 Total = 3 O'Connor #15 11:22b S 124 0.8% (31 cases; 2.5%) 14:35a SO 124
10:12a SVO 133 10:12b OVS 133 10:14a SVO 133 10:22b VOP 133 10:30a SPV 133 10:30b SVO 133 11:4b SVP 133 11:5b PVS 133 Total = 52 O'Connor #17 11:8a SPV 133 14.1% (275 cases; 22%) 11:8b VSP 133 11:9b PSV 133 11:14a PVS 133 11:16b SVO 133 11:21b SV 133 11:25b SV 133 11:28b PSV 133 11:31a SPV 133 12:3a VSP 133 12:13b VPS 133 12:16b VOS 133 12:21b SVO 133 12:24b SVO 133 12:26a VOS 133 12:27a VSO 133 13:1b SVO 133 13:6b SVO 133 13:8b SVO 133 13:10a PVO 133 13:11a SV 133 13:11b SV 133 13:16b SVO 133 13:21a OVS 133 13:21b OVS 133 14:26b PVO 133 14:32a PVS 133 14:32b VPS 133 14:1b SPVO 133 14:6b SPV 133 14:9a SVO 133 14:10b OVS 133 14:13a PVS 133 14:15b SVO 133 14:18a VSO 133 14:18b SVO 133 14:19a VSP 133 14:20a PVS 133 14:25b VOS 133 14:34a SVO 133 14:35b SVO 133 15:3b VO 133 15:22a VSP 133 10:1a SVO 134 10:3a VSO 134 10:4a OVS 134 10:6b OVS 134 10:8a SVO 134 10:11b SVO 134 10:13a PVS 134 10:19a PVS 134 10:21a SVO 134 10:21b SPV 134 10:22a SV 134 10:24a SVO 134 Total = 77 O'Connor #18 10:27a SVO 134 20.9% (79 cases; 6.5%) 10:31a SVO 134 10:32a SVO 134 11:10a PVS 134 11:11a PVS 134 11:4a VSP 134 11:5a SVO 134 11:12a VOS 134 11:16a SVO 134 11:17a VOS 134 11:18a SVO 134 11:21a AVS 134 12:18a VSP 134 12:19a SVP 134 12:6a SVO 134 12:8a PVS 134 12:8b SVO 134 12:10a VSO 134 12:12a VSO 134 12:23a SVO 134 12:23b SVO 134 12:25a SPVO 134 12:27b OVS 134 13:22a SVO 134 13:22b VPS 134 13:25a SVP 134 13:17a SVP 134 13:19a SVP 134 13:19b SVP 134 13:5a OVS 134 13:6a SVO 134 13:12a SVO 134 13:15a SVO 134 13:16a SVP 134 14:1a SVO 134 14:5b VOS 134 14:8a SVO 134 14:10a SVO 134 14:12a VPscP 134 14:15a SVO 134 14:17a SVO 134 14:23a PVO 134 14:25a VOS 134 14:29b SVO 134 14:33a PVS 134 15:1a SVO 134 15:1b SVO 134 15:2a SVO 134 15:2b SVO 134 15:5a SVO 134 15:7a SVO 134 15:13a SVO 134 15:14a SVO 134 15:14b SVO 134 15:18a SVO 134 15:18b SVO 134 15:20a SVO 134 15:20b SVO 134 15:21b SVO 134 15:25a OVS 134 15:28a SVP 134 15:28b SVO 134 15:30a SVO 134 15:30b SVO 134 15:31a S 134
12:14a PVO 135 Total = 5 O'Connor #19 12:14b SVO 135 1.4% (10 cases; 0.8%) 12:21a VOS 135 13:2a PVO 135
12:2a SVOP 144 Total = 4 O'Connor #20 12:16a SPVO 144 1.1% (20 cases; 1.6%) 13:4a VPscS 144 10:17b SV 223 10:19b SPsc 223 10:23b Psc 223 11:19b SPsc 223 Total = 15 O'Connor #23 11:27b OVO 223 4.1% (2 cases; 0.2%) 11:10b PPsc 223 12:1b SPsc 223 13:18b SV 223 13:20b SV 223 14:21b SPsc 223 14:31b PscS 223 15:5b SV 223 15:9b OV 223 15:10b SV 223 15:27b SV 223
11:18b SO 224 12:1a SPsc 224 Total = 5 O'Connor #24 12:11b SPsc 224 1.4% (0 cases) 15:10a PscP 224
11:24b SP 233 12:7a VO + PscS 233 Total = 9 O'Connor #26 12:15b SPsc 233 2.4% (92 cases; 7.5%) 13:5b SVV 233 13:7b ExstCl + ExstCl 233 13:20a SV 233 14:2b SVO 233 14:21a SPsc 233 10:5a SPsc 234 10:5b SPsc 234 10:10a SVO 234 10:17a PscS 234 10:18b SPsc 234 Total = 20 O'Connor #27 10:25a PP + PscS 234 5.4% (19 cases; 1.6%) 11:15a AV + VO 234 11:24a PscS + VO 234 11:29a SVO 234 11:26a OVS 234 11:27a SVO 234 11:13a SVO 234 11:13b SVO 234 12:11a SVO 234 13:3a SVO 234 13:3b SPscP 234 13:13b SV 234 13:18a PscS 234 14:31a SVO 234 14:14a PVS 234
10:23a SPsc 244 10:26a SPsc + SPsc 244 11:28a SV 244 Total = 12 O'Connor #29 11:2a VS + VS 244 3.3% (17 cases; 1.4%) 12:17a SVO 244 13:7a ExstCl + ExstCl 244 13:13a SVP 244 14:2a SVO 244 14:6a VSO + Psc 244 14:16a SVVP 244 15:12a VSO 244 15:32a SPsc 324 15:32b SPsc 324 Total = 3 O'Connor #XX 15:27a PscS 324 0.8% (0 cases) between O'Connor's corpus and Proverbs 10-15. 1 First, O'Connor's three major line types 122, 123, and 133 (122=245 cases [20%]; 123=229 cases [18.7%]; and 133=275 cases [22.4%]) vary significantly from those of Proverbs 10-15 (122=2 cases [0.5%]; 123=58 [15.8%]; 133=52 cases [14.1%]). Thus, though 122 is very frequent in O'Connor's corpus it is nearly non-existent in Proverbs 10-15. The explanation of this will be forthcoming. Two other contrasts were found: (1) line configuration 134 was present in abundance in Proverbs 10-15 (77 cases [20.9%]) but was rather infrequent in O'Connor's corpus (79 cases [6.5%]); and (2) nominal line types well represented in Proverbs 10-15 ( cases [1.7%] and contrastive comparison with Collins, which noted that Proverbs 10-15 uses nominal type basic sentences (SPsc) with greater frequency than are normally used in the prophets (Collins) or in poetry in general (O'Connor). The comparison with O'Connor corroborates the results from Collins--that genre may be differentiated on the basis of syntax and that one of the components of that difference is a proverbial bias in the direction of nominal sentence types. This bent is further highlighted ____________________ 1One should compare the results of Chart 10.10 with O'Connor's results presented on pages 317-20 of his work. when it is noted that O'Connor includes phrasal lines under the almost non-existent in Proverbs 10-15 (only in 11:22a and 12:9).
The unusual frequency of the 134 type (20.9% in Prov 10-15; 6.5% in O'Connor's corpus) may be accounted for by the high prominence of the SVO and SVM types of sentences. However, since these types (SVO and SVM) are frequent in both Proverbs and O'Connor, one must look beyond that for an explanation of the manifold use of the 134 configuration. Even a brief perusal of the proverbial text indicates the preponderance of the following characteristic two unit nominal constituent (NP): N1 + N2 where N1 = Parts (tongue, lips, hands, head, heart, etc.) Position (son, man, woman, name, memory, etc.) Possession (wealth, poverty, house, etc.) Passions (desire, avarice, hopes, etc.) N2 = Quality (righteous, wicked, wise, foolish, etc.) Is this any different from what is normative in other poetry? O'Connor's invaluable tome again provides a convenient benchmark.1 From his study of the uses of nouns and noun phrase distributions, he has discovered that in three constituent lines (133, 134, 135), out of ____________________
633 nouns and noun phrases, 550 [87%] are simple, one unit nominals, while only 83 [13%] were two units. While an exhaustive compilation of the data from the Proverbs corpus has not been carried out, a pilot study in Proverbs 10:1-11:1 has verified this writer's intuitions. There are about 52 [50%] single-unit nouns and about 52 [50%] two-unit noun phrases in Proverbs 10-15. It was also observed that if the initial element is a nominal, it is most likely a two-member noun phrase (24 to 11), while if the third member is a noun, then it is most likely to be singular (21 to 1). Thus, two items may be suggested as further specifying the syntactic description of antithetical proverbs: (1) a substantially higher frequency of two-unit NP's; and (2) the distribution of the NP's favors a two-unit first and a single-unit third. This theory must, of course, be checked by an analysis of the whole corpus, but the strength of the evidence found in chapter 10 and intuitions based on a sustained exposure to chapters 11-15 would suggest that this result is accurate. A two-unit initial NP and a single-unit final N result in a 134 configuration thereby explaining the significantly higher number of 134 types (20.9% over O'Connor's 6.5%) in Proverbs. The dominance of two-unit NP's also helps to explain the lack of 122 types, which are by this NP construction pushed to 123. A final observation will be made with regard to O'Connor's line constraints as they relate to bi-colonic patterns. It has been perceived that the second line of the bi-colon in Proverbs 10-15 is quite habitually shorter than that of the first. Due to the autonomous character of each colon, one cannot suggest that the second line assumes the first and hence may, for instance, pronominally delete the subject or gap the verb, as both of these features are utilized rather infrequently here. A strategy was designed to check this hypothesis. Appendix III arranges the bi-cola by initial line configurations and Appendix IV arranges the bi-cola in order of the second line configuration. These charts allow for a determination of whether the longer line types occur with great variety in the first or second place colon, indiscriminately, or whether certain line configurations occur more frequently in initial or second colon position. What was suspected was that syntactic line weights of four units would tend to be found more frequently in the initial colon while lighter lineal weights (3 units) would be more suited for the second colon.
The following is a summary of the results drawn from Appendices III and IV. The 4 unit colon occurred as follows: (1) the initially, while only 10 times finally; and, of those, 8 were when it was matched with a 4 or 5 unit initial colon; (2) the 134 configuration occurred 59 times in initial position but only 18 times as the second colon, with 15 of these 18 in a bi-colon which had a 4 or 5 unit initial clause; and (3) the 234 configuration was found 15 times in initial position and 5 times as the second colon, all or which were matched with 4 or 5 unit first cola. Two results are apparent from this analysis: (1) 4 unit syntactic line types tend to be found in the the first colon (76%, 104/137; it occurs in second position 24%, 33/137); (2) if the 4 unit line is placed in the second colon, 85% (28/33) of the time it is following a 4 or 5 unit initial line. In other words, there are only 6 examples out of 137 which manifest a situation where the 4 unit follows a smaller weighted first line (Prov 10:6, 14; 11:27; 12:27; 14:4, 5). Is this phenomenon reciprocated by a predominance of three unit elements in the second colon? It was found that times. Seven of the 9 times it came first, it was matched with a 3 unit line in the second. Similarly, 133 was found initially 20 times and finally 32 times. When 133 was found initially, twice it preceded the rare line, still maintaining the principle of the first line as being the same or larger than the second line. All but once the initial 133 was matched with a 3 or 2 unit second line. The 123 line type was found initially 11 times and finally 47 times. Again, when in initial position, all but twice it preceded a line of matching 3 unit portions. The results of the 3 unit lines reveal that 73% (110/150) of the time it was found in a second colon position and only 27% (40/150) in initial position and of those 40 times in initial position, all but 6 times it preceded a matching 3 or 2 unit second colon. What is being suggested is that the second colon unit count is usually less than or equal to the number of units of the first colon in all but about 4% of the cases. Hence, 4 unit lines tend toward initial line bi-colonic distributions (76%) while 3 unit lines tend to second line positions (73%). This seems to manifest another syntactic constraint on the bi-colon and, since its results cannot be easily compared with O'Connor's work, it will be left for others to show whether such a phenomenon is antithetic proverb specific or a universal in Hebrew poetry. A comparison with O'Connor's results has forwarded several other syntactically specified genre characteristics for antithetic proverbs. Two of these are the abundance of the 134 line configuration and the heavy use of 2 unit NP's. These two-unit NP's usually appear in initial positions, while single unit nominals are used in third position. The large number of compared to O'Connor's results confirms a similar contrast with Collins' prophetic corpus-both showing that Proverbs 10-15 employs a substantially higher number of nominal basic sentence types (SPsc). Finally, it has been demonstrated that the second line tends to have fewer syntactic units than the first, but may also, less frequently, match the number of units in the first. Only rarely is the first line shorter (4%). This should not be attributed to gapping or pronominal referencing--as is common elsewhere in Hebrew poetry--since Proverbs is marked by two independent and complete cola with only rare dependence between lines (gapping is used more frequently than pronominal cross referencing, however). Here, again, what a comparison with O'Connor's work has allowed for is the generation of a syntactic description for genre specification.
O'Connor have suggested that parallelistic poetic features are not simply functions of the semantic component, but that parallelism activates all aspects of language. Their studies necessarily dealt with line length correspondences--whether in terms of the trope of matching (Collins' line type II) or in specifying the syntactic constraints which determine a line (O'Connor). This study CHART 10.11 Total Isomorphisms in Proverbs 10-15 Isomorphisms Types Independent Embedded Mixed Horizontal Total ch 10 18 20 0 4 42 ch 11 28 10 1 2 41 ch 12 25 11 0 0 36 ch 13 17 7 0 0 24 ch 14 24 17 0 0 41 ch 15 31 11 0 0 42 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Totals 143 76 1 6 226 Distribution of Isomorphisms per verse
ch 11 9 9 7 6 0 0 ch 12 8 6 9 4 0 0 ch 13 12 6 4 2 1 0 ch 14 11 11 7 4 1 0 ch 15 14 5 7 5 2 0 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Totals 64 46 42 22 5 2 Perfect Isomorphic verses: Proverbs 10:5, 16; 11:3; 12:5; 13:9, 21; 14:18; 15:2, 14
ch 10 23 9 3 0 35 ch 11 30 15 1 0 46 ch 12 29 8 0 0 37 ch 13 24 8 0 0 32 ch 14 22 12 1 0 35 ch 15 17 14 0 2 33 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Totals 145 66 5 2 218
ch 10 9 13 8 2 0 0 ch 11 4 15 8 6 0 0 ch 12 5 12 10 0 0 1 ch 13 8 8 4 4 1 0 ch 14 12 10 9 2 0 0 ch 15 10 15 2 4 0 0 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- totals 48 73 41 18 1 1
13, 20, 27; 12:6, 19, 21, 22; 13:7, 11, 20; 14:15, 19, 28; 15:1, 8, 18, 20, 30
12:1, 27, 28; 13:6; 14:24, 25; 15:25, 32 There were only 23 (12.5%) verses with neither Isomorphism or homomorphisms (ch 10 = 5; ch 11 = 2; ch 12 = 2; ch 13 = 3; ch 14 = 6; ch 15 = 5). will demonstrate that syntactical and morphological correspondences proliferate, rather than becoming more sparse as one dips below the line level to the syntactical units themselves.1 This study consequently corroborates studies which have clarioned the syntactic component of parallelism and extends it by showing the near ubiquitous character of syntactic matching on the sub-lineal level. Tagmemics has provided the tool for monitoring this phenomenon. The grouping of isomorphic and homomorphic elements between lines provides a means of quantifying the syntactic poetic data. The following two charts (10.11 and 10.12) reveal that all but 23 (12.5%) verses contain either an isomorphism or homomorphism. Not only are they found in 87.5% of the verses examined, but they occur repeatedly in many of those verses. This is considerably higher than the 33% of lines which exhibit lineal matching. The chart also reveals the frequency of iso/homomorphic matches in single verses.
matches (226) actually exceeds the number of homomorphic (218), although the homomorphisms are distributed more widely. The horizontal isomorphisms reveal that syntactic ____________________
Parallelism" and Edward Greenstein's "How Does Parallelism Mean?" confirm the results of this approach.
but also may exist within the line itself (e.g., Prov 10:26; 11:2; 15:4; 15:27; cf also 10:9). Several examples of the isomorphic phenomenon will demonstrate how the poets used syntactic units of equivalence. The writer will use these examples not only to prove the importance and frequency of sub-lineal syntactic parallels, but also to provide a taste for how proverbial poetry may be syntactically read as poetry. Such readings are not meant to be exhaustive; rather they are suggestive of a possible, often neglected, approach. Several verses (9) manifest a perfect isomorphic character of all syntactic units. This is much tighter than simple matching (SVO/SVO), as often the units of such lineal matches will vary syntactically. Totally isomorphic verses focus on the perfection of syntactic equivalences. There is a feeling of symmetrical syntactic sameness in these verses. Proverbs 10:5 uses the total isomorphism to contrastively categorized--that is, the one who gathers crops in the summer (as wise) as contrasted, with the one who sleeps when he should be harvesting (as foolish).1 ____________________
in its literary context on page 655 of chapter IX on "Literary Cohesion in Proverbs 10."
This proverb obviously encourages performing the appropriate act at the appropriate time as a matter of wisdom, in addition to providing a general commendation of diligence. Such models taken from agriculture, demurring laziness, are frequent in wisdom literature thoroughout the ancient Near East.1 Both subjects are filled by an intransitive clause composed of a participle followed by a temporally modifying prepositional phrase ( אֹגֵר בַּקַיִץ [he who gathers crops in summer], נִרְדָם בַּקָצִיר [he who sleeps during harvest]). Both subject complements are noun phrases describing the character of the son via participles (בֵּן מַשְׂכִּיל [wise son]; בֵּן מֵבִישׁ [disgraceful Yüklə 6,58 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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