10:29a PscPS 034
11:29b PscSP 034
12:13a PPscS 034
12:15a SPscP 034 Total = 8 O'Connor #9
14:22b PscS 034 2.2% (1 case; 0.1%)
15:21a SPscP 034
15:23a PscPP 034
15:24a SPscP 034
15:17a PscS 035 Total = 1 O'Connor #10
0.3% (0 cases)
12:9a Aug Comp 044 Total = 2 O'Connor #11
15:4b SPsc 044 0.5% (0 cases)
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
10:2b SVP 133
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
11:7a PVS 135
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
11:9a PSVO 144
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
10:18a SPsc 224
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
10:9b SV 233
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
10:9a SVA 244
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 023 and 024 were found
well represented in Proverbs 10-15 (023=40 cases [10.9%];
024=40 cases [10.9%]) as compared to O'Connor's 023=21
cases [1.7%] and 024=5 cases [0.4%]. This confirms the
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 0 clause predicator symbol. Phrasal lines were
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
____________________
1Ibid., p. 336.
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 024 configuration was found 30 times
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 023 came first 9 times, while it came second 31
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 022 type
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 023 and 024 types as
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.
A Survey of Bi-colonic Syntactic
Isomorphisms and Homomorphisms
Introductory Statistics
The results of Collins and, more particularly,
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
Iso/verse 0 1 2 3 4 5
ch 10 10 9 8 1 1 2
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
CHART 10.12
Total Homomorphisms in Proverbs 10-15
Homomorphisms
Types Independent Embedded Mixed Horizontal Total
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
Distribution of Homomorphisms per verse
Homo/verse 0 1 2 3 4 5
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
Perfect Iso/Homo verses: Proverbs 10:15, 29; 11:1, 9, 11,
13, 20, 27; 12:6, 19,
21, 22; 13:7, 11, 20;
14:15, 19, 28; 15:1, 8,
18, 20, 30
Almost perfect Iso/Homo verses: Proverbs 11:16-18, 23;
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.
Isomorphic Syntactic Equivalences
It is interesting that the number of isomorphic
matches (226) actually exceeds the number of homomorphic
(218), although the homomorphisms are distributed more
widely. The horizontal isomorphisms reveal that syntactic
____________________
1Adele Berlin's "Grammatical Aspects of Biblical
Parallelism" and Edward Greenstein's "How Does Parallelism
Mean?" confirm the results of this approach.
units of equivalence are not only present between lines
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
____________________
1One should reflect on the discussion of this verse
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
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