Assignment 0913 - הלך

Description

QUESTION 2 OF ESSAY 09:13

Does God move in mysterious ways? Search for cases in which God (or YHWH) is the subject of the verb הלך ‘to go, walk’. What do these cases tell you about divine motion? And what do they tell about the structure of the database?

Reading this question it seems that the Shebanq query to develop has the purpose of searching for cases "in which God (or YHWH) is the subject of the verb הלך ‘to go". The results of this query should then be used to answer the following three subquestions: a. Does God move in mysterious ways? b. What do these cases tell you about divine motion? c. And what do they tell about the structure of the database?

With the help of Shebanq, however, we can simply find all cases where the word "God", or the word "YHWH", appears within a phrase with the Subject function, related to a verbal phrase that includes the verb הלך ‘to go". It is therefore important to remember that:

1. There are cases where God (or YHWH), as the Extra linguistic Referent, is a Participant (with subject function) related to the verb הלך (‘to go, walk’), BUT the actual word "God" (or "YHWH") is not mentioned in the phrase with the Subject function actually present in the clause where the verb הלך (‘to go, walk’) appears (see. Isaiah 45:2). To my knowledge, Shebanq cannot be used to identify precisely all cases in which a specific extra-linguistic Referent is connected to a certain verb as a Participant. The relation between verbs and participants is sometimes more complex. For a very good work on participant identification see Christian Canu Højgaard, Roles and Relations in Biblical Law: A Study of Participant Tracking, Semantic Roles, and Social Networks in Leviticus 17–26’ (PhD dissertation, Vrije Universiteit), Amsterdam 2021, 52-55.

2. Even in those cases where the word "God" or the word "YHWH" is actually present in the phrase with the Subject function actually present in the clause where the verb הלך (‘to go, walk’) appears; we need to exclude those cases where these words appear but neither "God" nor "YHWH are the actual subject of the verb הלך (‘to go, walk’). See, for example, 1 Kings 13:12 ("The man of God went").

3. Even in those cases where the word "God" or the word "YHWH" is actually present in the phrase with the Subject function actually present in the clause where the verb הלך (‘to go, walk’) appears AND the word "God" (or "YHWH") is the actual subject of the verb הלך (‘to go, walk’); that doesn't mean that all those instances represent cases where it is God (or YHWH) Who performs the action of "walking". We know, for example, that in English, in the active voice, the subject usually "carries out" the action. However, we all know this is not always so in biblical Hebrew. There are cases where the word "God" or the word "YHWH" actually appears as the subject of the verb הלך (‘to go, walk’), but it is not "God" (or YHWH) Who performs the action of walking but rather makes somebody else or something else to perform it (see Ex 14:21; Deuteronomy 8:2; 28:36; Psalm 125:5).

Having said that it appears quite clear that:

1. Subquestion "a" ("Does God move in mysterious ways?") cannot be properly answered using only Shebanq.

2. Subquestion "b" ("What do these cases tell you about divine motion?") cannot be properly answered using only Shebanq.

3. Concerning Subquestion "c" ("What do THEY ["... These cases"] tell about the structure of the database?"). On top of what has been written above, further consideration can be done. This consideration, however, is not only connected with the structure of the database but with what is implemented in Shebanq. We find out, in fact, that the "Sub-phrase" structure is not deeply represented in the database and that Shebanq offers less powerful access to those few features connected with the Sub-phrase structure, with respect to Text-Fabric.

Versions

2021

Query instruction (mql)

Select all objects where

[verse
  [clause
     [UNORDEREDGROUP
        [phrase function = Subj
           /*The Feature "FIRST" is to avoid verses like 
           1 Kings 13:12 - "The man of God went..."*/
           [word FOCUS FIRST lex = "JHWH/" OR lex =">LHJM/"]
        ]
        [phrase typ = VP
          [word FOCUS lex = "HLK["]
        ]
     ]
  ]
]