THE BALANCE OF PROBABILITY: STATISTICS AND THE DIACHRONIC STUDY OF ANCIENT HEBREW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2562Abstract
In this article, I discuss three statistical tools that have proven pivotal in linguistic research, particularly those studies that seek to evaluate large datasets. These tools are the Gaussian Curve, significance tests, and hierarchical clustering. I present a brief description of these tools and their general uses. Then, I apply them to an analysis of the variations between the “biblical†DSS and our other witnesses, focusing upon variations involving particles. Finally, I engage the recent debate surrounding the diachronic study of Biblical Hebrew. This article serves a dual function. First, it presents statistical tools that are useful for many linguistic studies. Second, it develops an analysis of the he-locale, as it is used in the “biblical†Dead Sea Scrolls, Masoretic Text, and Samaritan Pentateuch. Through that analysis, this article highlights the value of inferential statistical tools as we attempt to better understand the Hebrew of our ancient witnesses.References
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Romaine, S 1982. Socio-historical linguistics: its status and methodology. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Tigchelaar, E J C 2010. Assessing Emanuel Tov’s ‘Qumran scribal practice’, in Metso, Najman and Sculler 2010:173–208.
Austel, H 1969. Prepositional and non-prepositional complements with verbs of motion in Biblical Hebrew. PhD dissertation. Los Angeles: University of California.
Biber, D 1993. Representativeness in corpus design, LLC 8:243–257.
Biber, D, Conrad, S & Reppen, R 1998. Corpus linguistics: investigating language structure and use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cantos, P G 2012. The use of linguistic corpora for the study of linguistic variation and change: types and computational applications, in Hernández & Silvestre 2000:99–122.
Everitt, B 1998. The Cambridge dictionary of statistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Garcia, J & Quintana-Domeque, C 2007. The evolution of adult height in Europe: a brief note, EHB 5:340–349.
Hernández, J M & Silvestre J C C 2012. The handbook of historical sociolinguistics. Cambridge, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hornkohl, A D 2014. Ancient Hebrew periodization and the language of the book of Jeremiah: the case for a sixth-century date of composition. SSLL 74. Leiden: Brill.
Jacobs, J T 2015. The balance of probability: a statistically based analysis of the linguistic character of the “biblical†Dead Sea Scrolls. PhD dissertation. Manchester: The University of Manchester.
Joosten, J 2005. The distinction between Classical and Late Biblical Hebrew as reflected in syntax, HS 46:327–339.
Lumley, T, Diehr, P, Emerson, S & Chen, L 2002. The importance of the normality assumption in large public health data sets, ARPH 23:151–169.
Metso, S, Najman, H and Schuller, E (eds) 2010. The Dead Sea Scrolls: transmission of traditions and production of texts. STDJ 92. Leiden: Brill.
Muraoka, T 2000. An Approach to the Morphosyntax and Syntax of Qumran Hebrew, in
Muraoka and Elwolde 2000:193–214.
Muraoka, T & Elwolde, J F (eds) 2000. Diggers at the well: Proceedings of a Third International Symposium on the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben Sira. STDJ 36. Leiden: Brill.
Rezetko, R 2013. The Qumran Scrolls of the book of Judges: literary formation, textual criticism, and historical linguistics, JHS 13:1–69.
Rezetko, R & Young, I 2014. Historical linguistics and Biblical Hebrew: steps toward an integrated approach. ANEM 9. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature Press.
Romaine, S 1982. Socio-historical linguistics: its status and methodology. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Six-Sigma-Material.com, n.d. Normal distribution. Available: http://www.six-sigmamaterial.com/ Normal-Distribution.html. [2015/10/15.]
Tigchelaar, E J C 2010. Assessing Emanuel Tov’s ‘Qumran scribal practice’, in Metso, Najman and Sculler 2010:173–208.
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Published
2017-05-09
How to Cite
Jacobs, Jarod. 2017. “THE BALANCE OF PROBABILITY: STATISTICS AND THE DIACHRONIC STUDY OF ANCIENT HEBREW”. Journal for Semitics 25 (2):927-60. https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2562.
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