Psalm 12 Discourse
From Psalms: Layer by Layer
Macrosyntax
- Paragraph divisions.
- vv. 2-3. The paragraph opens with vocative. The two verses are bound together semantically – both describe two aspects of the current situation – and this semantic relationship is strengthened by the marked word order in v. 3. No one is truthful (v. 2); only falsehood remains (v. 3).
- vv. 4-5 are a tightly bound syntactic unit. 4b and 5 stand in apposition to a phrase in 4a. The section ends with the conclusion of direct speech.
- vv. 6-7 mirror the previous paragraph: Apposition – Direct Speech // Direct Speech – Apposition
- vv. 8-9. New paragraph indicated with vocative, person shift, and marked word order.
- v. 2. The two כִּי clauses in v. 2 provide grounds for the speech act in v. 2a ("Help, YHWH!").
- v. 3. The modifiers are fronted in v. 3ab for marked focus (cf. Lunn 2006:297 "MKD"). The fact that people speak to one another is assumed. The information in focus is the way in which they speak to each other. The verse answers an implicit question: "How do they speak to each other?" Answer: "They speak falsehood... they speak with flattering lips, with duplicity."
- v. 5. "Our tongues" – pragmatically marked (so Lunn 2006:297); or fronted to match שפתינו in the following line?
- v. 6. For יֹאמַ֣ר יְהוָ֑ה sandwiched by direct speech, cf. Isa. 1:11, 18; 33:10; 41:21; 66:9. In this psalm, this has the effect of juxtaposing the speech of YHWH (v. 6) with the speech of the wicked (v. 5).
- fronting of PP's ? frame-setting
- v. 7, The apposition in v. 7abc mirrors the apposition in v. 4ab-5a.
- v. 8. YHWH alone will guard them. The vocative hearkens back to the first paragraph with which there are other connections (e.g., בני אדם).
- v. 9. The modifier סָבִיב is fronted (cf. Ps. 3:7b; Job 18:11a). Lunn analyzes this as an instance of defamiliarized word order, though he considers the word order in Ps. 3:7b to be pragmatically marked.
Speech Act Analysis
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Affect Analysis
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