Summer Plans

Lots to do this summer!  Hebrew Club is translating Joshua.  I took a look at the first couple of verses and managed to sight read them.  So much better than Trito-Isaiah, which was a major pain in the vocabulary.  Am noting all the verb forms (wayyiqtol, qatal, etc) as I go, so that as I learn more about Niccacci's approach to syntax using discourse linguistics, I won't have to backtrack too far.


Speaking of which.   I have almost finished chapter 4 of his Syntax of the Verb in Classical Hebrew Prose, and am just getting a glimmer of what it's all about.  Cool concept, really, discourse linguistics, but I don't know that the terminology is universal.  I've been dipping into my Linguistics 101 textbook and hitting Wikipedia and I think I maybe know what he is talking about, but hey, I've been wrong before.  Which is where Rocine comes in. His text  Learning Biblical Hebrew: A New Approach Using Discourse Analysis is going to be my baby this summer.  It's a beginners' textbook, but uses Niccacci's approach from the get go, and more importantly, explains discourse analysis clearly, step by step, in English.  Niccacci is translated from the Italian -- it might be wonderful, but I have no way of knowing if the Italian is better.  I have learned to distrust translations.

I've read the first couple of lessons, and Rocine uses a similar format to Kittel's book.  I am really looking forward to getting my teeth into this.  I love the idea of discourse analysis and I want to see it in action!  I have never been comfortable with what I know of Hebrew verbs - it never seems to be enough -- I hope discourse analysis can change that.

Next on my list of summer fun -- A History of the Ancient Near East by Marc Van de Mieroop.  This little jewel -- and it is! -- is introducing me to the historical background I need to study Hebrew.  Now that I have successfully navigated my first research paper, I am going to brave a history class next year!  But being such a slow reader, I am giving myself the summer to acclimate myself to the terminology, the maps, the dates, the empires.

It's funny.  When I went to university the first time round, I could absorb masses of information at  top speed.  Is is that my brain it too full now?  Not as flexible? I don't know.  I just find I struggle with new information.  It gets into the old brain eventually, but I find the learning curve very steep.  I fight and fight and fight and then all of a sudden, I know it.  All that fighting is pretty hard on the nerves though (to say nothing of hard on the husband, the kids, the furniture...) so this summer I am dipping my foot in the ANE (Ancient Near East) pool.  Learning enough so that I can appreciate the classroom lectures without worrying about which is Iraq and which is Iran and which one was Persia or Babylon or Assyria.