In the Beginning There Was Conversation: Fictive Direct Speech in the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

As the canonical form of language use, face-to-face conversation, characterized by recurring perspective shift, also provides a central conceptual frame for structuring monologues and written texts. We hypothesize that such conversation-based structures are especially widespread in texts and languages that stand close to the oral roots of human culture. To substantiate this claim, we study an ancient and extremely influential text, the Hebrew bible, which shows a highly conversational structure throughout. We discuss such frequent structures as the presentation of non-reported speech in order to introduce intentions, hopes, motives, or states of affairs. Special emphasis is laid on the complementizer לאמר (lemor), grammaticalized from a speaking verb (Miller 2003). This complementizer introduces the reason or significance of an action, presented through direct speech. We hope to advance the view that language and discourse are inherently conversational and thus viewpointed in nature.