Shepherd M. The Verbal System of Biblical Aramaic: A Distributional Approach

New York: Peter Lang, 2007. — 178 p. — (Studies in Biblical Literature, 116). — ISBN: 1433102013.Grammarians have been unable to provide a sufficient explanation for the verbal system of Biblical Aramaic by means of the standard categories of tense and aspect.Michael B. Shepherd exposes this situation and suggests a way out of the present impasse through distributional analysis by proposing that Biblical Aramaic has a primary verbal form for narration and a primary verbal form for discourse. This simple yet comprehensive proposal holds true not only for Biblical Aramaic but also for extra-Biblical Aramaic texts. This volume is an indispensable resource for courses in Biblical Aramaic and for anyone who wishes to read and understand the Biblical Aramaic corpus.List of Tables.
Editor's Preface.The Modern History of Research
The Standard Grammars.
H. B. Rosén.
Excursus: Why Is There Aramaic in the Bible?
Textlinguistic Methodology.
What Is Textlinguistics?
Modern Linguistics.
The Study of Dead Language.
Database Results and Extra-biblical Parallels.
The Distributional Database Approach.
The Results.
Parallels: Old Aramaic and Modern Aramaic, Egyptian Aramaic, Targums, Aramaic-influenced Texts.
Commentary.
Jeremiah 10:11.
Daniel 2:4b–7:28.
Ezra 4:8–6:18.
Ezra 7:12–26.Appendix.