Psalm 22 Macrosyntax
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Psalm 22/Macrosyntax
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Have you forsaken me?
Psalm 22
Macrosyntax
Macrosyntax Diagram
| Macrosyntax legend | |
|---|---|
| Vocatives | Vocatives are indicated by purple text. |
| Discourse marker | Discourse markers (such as כִּי, הִנֵּה, לָכֵן) are indicated by orange text. |
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The scope governed by the discourse marker is indicated by a dashed orange bracket connecting the discourse marker to its scope. |
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The preceding discourse grounding the discourse marker is indicated by a solid orange bracket encompassing the relevant clauses. |
| Subordinating conjunction | The subordinating conjunction is indicated by teal text. |
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Subordination is indicated by a solid teal bracket connecting the subordinating conjunction with the clause to which it is subordinate. |
| Coordinating conjunction | The coordinating conjunction is indicated by blue text. |
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Coordination is indicated by a solid blue line connecting the coordinating clauses. |
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Coordination without an explicit conjunction is indicated by a dashed blue line connecting the coordinated clauses. |
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Marked topic is indicated by a black dashed rounded rectangle around the marked words. |
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The scope of the activated topic is indicated by a black dashed bracket encompassing the relevant clauses. |
| Marked focus or thetic sentence | Marked focus (if one constituent) or thetic sentences[1] are indicated by bold text. |
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Frame setters[2] are indicated by a solid gray rounded rectangle around the marked words. |
| [blank line] | Discourse discontinuity is indicated by a blank line. |
| [indentation] | Syntactic subordination is indicated by indentation. |
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Direct speech is indicated by a solid black rectangle surrounding all relevant clauses. |
| (text to elucidate the meaning of the macrosyntactic structures) | Within the CBC, any text elucidating the meaning of macrosyntax is indicated in gray text inside parentheses. |
If an emendation or revocalization is preferred, that emendation or revocalization will be marked in the Hebrew text of all the visuals.
| Emendations/Revocalizations legend | |
|---|---|
| *Emended text* | Emended text, text in which the consonants differ from the consonants of the Masoretic text, is indicated by blue asterisks on either side of the emendation. |
| *Revocalized text* | Revocalized text, text in which only the vowels differ from the vowels of the Masoretic text, is indicated by purple asterisks on either side of the revocalization. |
(Click diagram to enlarge)
- v. 4 – The discourse discontinuity is indicated by the topic shift, "But you..." and the vocative.
- v. 7 – The discourse discontinuity is indicated by the topic shift, "But I..."
- v. 12 – The discourse discontinuity is indicated by the double subordination in v. 12b–c,[3] and the "my God" inclusio from vv. 2–11 created by the order אלי אתה in v. 11b.
- v. 20 – The discourse discontinuity is indicated by the topic shift, "But you..." and the first vocative since v. 4.
- v. 5a – The fronting of the prepositional phrase בְּ֭ךָ indicates a completive focus interpretation of this constituent, as read, for example, in the SG21: C’est en toi que nos ancêtres se confiaient.
- v. 6a – The fronting of the prepositional phrase אֵלֶ֣יךָ could also indicate a completive focus interpretation of this constituent, though it may also simply repeat the pattern established in v. 5 (see note on v. 5).
- v. 6b – The order בְּךָ֖ בָטְח֣וּ provides a structural inclusio with the same order read in v. 5a (see above).
- v. 8a – The fronting of כָּל־רֹ֭אַי marks the topical introduction of this participant, until the topic shift in v. 10a.
- v. 11a – The fronting of עָ֭לֶיךָ functions as corrective focus—namely, that the psalmist has been fully reliant on YHWH, and not his mother, since birth.
- v. 11b – The clause-initial position of מִבֶּ֥טֶן אִ֝מִּ֗י provides a tail-head linkage with מֵרָ֑חֶם in the previous clause. The following verbless clause should be read as a specificational, i.e., "the one who is my God is you," as illustrated by the TOB: dès le ventre de ma mère, mon Dieu, c'est toi.
- v. 13b – The clause's constituent order provides a symmetrical pattern to v. 13a.
- v. 15a – The fronting of the prepositional phrase כַּמַּ֥יִם may communicate scalar focus of as much as water, or "even" as much as water, as our expanded translations shows.
- v. 16c – The fronting of the prepositional phrase לַעֲפַר־מָ֥וֶת communicates scalar focus, as our expanded translations shows.
- v. 17b – The clause's constituent order provides a symmetrical pattern to v. 17a.
- v. 18b – The fronting of הֵ֥מָּה marks a topic shift to this participant, until another topic shift back to YHWH in v. 20a.
- v. 19b – Despite being quite complex, the constituent order of this clause somewhat symmetrically reflected v. 19a, with a prepositional phrase, clothing with a first-person pronominal suffix and a verb phrase.
- יְחַלְּק֣וּ בְגָדַ֣י לָהֶ֑ם // וְעַל־לְ֝בוּשִׁ֗י יַפִּ֥ילוּ גוֹרָֽל׃
- v. 20a – The fronted independent pronoun indicates a topic shift, "But you..."
- v. 20b – "to my help" may precede "hurry" in order to both establish a pattern of clause- and line-final imperatives (as in the preceding clause/line) and a tail-head linkage with the following imperative "Rescue" in v. 21a.
- v. 21a–b – The post-verb position of מֵחֶ֣רֶב informationally selects the "Rescue from what?" implicit in this clause and the preceding clause's "hurry to my aid!" This pattern is repeated in the following line.
- v. 23b – The clause's constituent order provides a symmetrical pattern to v. 23a.
- v. 25d is best read as a thetic sentence with a simple verbal predicate following a fronted temporal adverbial.
- v. 26a – The initial position of מֵ֥אִתְּךָ֗ indicates a confirming focus that the psalmist will praise due to no other reason than YHWH and his miraculous deliverance.
- v. 26b – The fronted נְדָרַ֥י provides a brief topical introduction before the following clause's topic shift.
- v. 29a – The initial לַ֭יהוָה communicates exclusive focus, in that kingship belongs only to YHWH, as illustrated by the SG21: car c’est à l’Eternel qu’appartient le règne.
- v. 30b – The fronting of לְפָנָ֣יו communicates an exclusive focus of people's worship.
- v. 30c – The fronting of נַפְשׁ֗וֹ communicates a topic activation, in contrast to the following "future generation" who will be preserved and will serve YHWH.
- v. 31a – The fronting of זֶ֥רַע could indicate that זֶ֥רַע יַֽעַבְדֶ֑נּוּ be interpreted as a thetic sentence, introducing the worship of future generations somewhat out-of-the-blue. Nevertheless, the contrast with the "lives" of the present generation supports a topical reading of זֶ֥רַע "future generations."
- v. 2 – The sentence-initial vocative identifies the addressee.
- v. 3 – The sentence initial vocative repeats the pattern established in v. 2.
- v. 4 – According to Revell the position of the vocative following the clause's predication can indicate the superiority of the addressee.[4]
- v. 20a – The vocative follows the topic-shifted personal pronoun and precedes the verbal predication, "marking" the detached element as conversationally significant,[5] in this case repeating the appeal from v. 12a.
- v. 20b – The line-initial vocative prepares the addressee for the urgent imperative,[6] "hurry to my aid!"
- v. 24a–b – The line-initial vocatives identify addressees of the two clauses.
- v. 24c – Concluding a series of three vocatives, the third is placed in a symmetrical pattern to the preceding two, to conclude the pattern.
(There are no notes on discourse markers for this psalm.)
(There are no notes on conjunctions for this psalm.)
- ↑ When the entire utterance is new/unexpected, it is a thetic sentence (often called "sentence focus"). See our Creator Guidelines for more information on topic and focus.
- ↑ Frame setters are any orientational constituent – typically, but not limited to, spatio-temporal adverbials – function to "limit the applicability of the main predication to a certain restricted domain" and "indicate the general type of information that can be given" in the clause nucleus (Krifka & Musan 2012: 31-32). In previous scholarship, they have been referred to as contextualizing constituents (see, e.g., Buth (1994), “Contextualizing Constituents as Topic, Non-Sequential Background and Dramatic Pause: Hebrew and Aramaic evidence,” in E. Engberg-Pedersen, L. Falster Jakobsen and L. Schack Rasmussen (eds.) Function and expression in Functional Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 215-231; Buth (2023), “Functional Grammar and the Pragmatics of Information Structure for Biblical Languages,” in W. A. Ross & E. Robar (eds.) Linguistic Theory and the Biblical Text. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 67-116), but this has been conflated with the function of topic. In brief: sentence topics, belonging to the clause nucleus, are the entity or event about which the clause provides a new predication; frame setters do not belong in the clause nucleus and rather provide a contextual orientation by which to understand the following clause.
- ↑ See Lunn 2006, 24–25.
- ↑ Revell 1996, 338.
- ↑ Kim 2022, 227–233.
- ↑ Kim 2022, 213–217.