Word Order and Information Structure in Finite Verb Clauses in Hellenistic Period Hebrew

This study investigates the relationship between word order and information structure in finite verb clauses in three ancient Hebrew texts from among the Dead Sea Scrolls—the Community Rule, the War Rule, and the Habakkuk Pesher. An excursus provides a separate treatment of Daniel 8–12. The theoretical linguistic foundations of the study are rooted in generative linguistics, especially the work of J. Uriagereka and N. Erteschik-Shir. The Early Immediate Constituent Theory of J. Hawkins also plays an important role. The emphasis is on syntactic structures where word order is flexible in order to investigate the effect of variation on information structure. The basic word order of subject and verb is indeterminate, and therefore it is not possible to know whether SV or VS order is marked (although the tendencies of each order are nonetheless clear). However, it is simple to determine that the basic word order of verb and object is VO. Deviations from the basic VO order can be explained using three structures: left-dislocation of a shift topic; fronting of a Topic (whether a shift topic, contrastive constituent, or restrictive constituent); and fronting of a non-Topic (whether a cleft constituent or a constituent that opens the clause-final attentive focus position for a different constituent). The largest clause-level constituent is normally placed in clause-final position in order to satisfy the EICT.