Circumstantial Qualifiers in Semitic: the Case of Arabic and Hebrew.

• Author: Edzard, Lutz
• Position: Book review

Circumstantial Qualifiers in Semitic: The Case of Arabic and Hebrew. By BO ISAKSSON, HELENE KAMMENSJO, and MARIA PERSSON. Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. 70. Wies-baden: HARRASSOWITZ, 2009. Pp. xvii + 289. [euro] 68.

Under the aegis of Bo Isaksson at the University of Uppsala, this thematically focused volume on Arabic syntax was undertaken by three Swedish scholars--Helene Kammensjo, Maria Persson, and Bo Isaksson himself--based on a large-scale project funded by the Swedish Research Council. The self-proclaimed goal of this monograph is "to bring into focus circumstantial clause combining in Arabic and Hebrew by presenting corpus-based pilot studies on circumstantial qualifiers in a choice of language varieties: pre-classical and classical Arabic, classical Hebrew, modern literary Arabic and Gulf Arabic dialects" (p. 25). Following a methodological introduction by Isaksson, the volume subsequently unites three thematically coherent and mutually complementary larger sections: "An Outline of Comparative Arabic and Hebrew Textlinguistics" (Isaksson), "Circumstantial Qualifiers in Contemporary Arabic Prose" (Kammensjo), and "Circumstantial Qualifiers in Gulf Arabic Dialects" (Persson). The three sections are mutually compatible in their approach to subject matter and data, without slavishly following the same structure. Isaksson figures both as co-author and editor of the whole volume.

The main thrust of the project consists in broadening the perspective of what has traditionally been associated with circumstantial clauses in Semitic, namely, Arabic h[a.bar]l clauses. A typical trait of such h[a.bar]l clauses is their temporal coincidence with or immediate sequence to the head clause, e.g., in Akkadian p[i.bar]-su [i.bar]pus-am-ma izakkar-am ana PN "he opened his mouth in order to say ("and says") to PN" (Old Babylonian version of Gilgamesh, passim); Biblical Hebrew way-y[a.bar]b[o.bar](') 'el[i.bar]s[a.bar]' dammeeseq u-ben-hadar melek-'ar[a.bar]m h[o.bar]le(h) "Elisha came to Damascus while ("and") Ben Hadar, the king of Aram, was ("is") ill" (I K 8:7); Classical Arabic 'aqbalat '[i.bar]run wa-nahnu nusall[i.bar] "a caravan approached while ("and") we were ("are") praying."

Accordingly, the team around Bo Isaksson prefers the term "circumstantial qualifiers" (henceforth, CQs), as instances of nominal complements, notably of the type maf'[u.bar]l min'ajli-h[i.bar], and other structure types are also included in their...