[b-greek] Re: Topic Prominence Marking: Jn 19b-27

From: c stirling bartholomew (cc.constantine@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Wed Nov 07 2001 - 12:49:25 EST


on 11/7/01 5:47 AM, Mike Sangrey wrote:

> Another good example of this is Luke 22:54-23:23. Jonathan M. Watt[1]
> points out the infrequency of the word (name) `Jesus' in the account.
> He mentions that the closest antecedent of the pronouns in Luke 22:63-64
> is Peter and NOT Jesus. He also points out the disparity in frequency
> between the other gospel accounts and this one in Luke. The frequency
> of the use of Jesus' name per verse in the other accounts varies from
> .23 to .42. In the Lukan account it is .07.
>
> Jonathan's point is that the NAMELESSNESS of Jesus is there for its
> rhetorical effect. The effect being the sense of shame and disgrace.

Mike,

The socio-rhetorical analysis using the Honor/Shame scheme is somewhat
removed from Topic, Focus and Foreground. It is a different methodology with
different assumptions. I recently encounter an extensive use of the
Honor/Shame scheme in J.H. Neyrey's commentary on 2Peter/Jude (AB 1993). But
that is a different subject.

Participant Encoding and Topicality

Heimerdinger* does address the level of participant encoding (e.g., noun
phrase, pronoun, zero anaphora) in his discussion of topicality (see pps.
123-125). He argues that referential distance is not the only factor to
consider when observing how a participant is encoded.

He notes that Abraham is encoded repeatedly as a full noun phrase (Gen. 22)
where the referential distance does not require this. He suggests that using
a full noun phrase for Abraham in a context where a pronoun or zero
anaphora would be sufficient increases the topical prominence of Abraham.

I will need some time to think this one over. The example you cite from Luke
(see above) seems at first glance to undermine this idea.

greetings,

Clay

--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062

*Heimerdinger, Jean-Marc. Topic, focus and foreground in ancient Hebrew
narratives, Sheffield Academic Press, c1999.



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