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# A Discourse-Functional Description of Participant Reference in Biblical Hebrew Narrative

**Authors:** Steven E. Runge · **Year:** 2007 · **Venue:** PhD dissertation, Stellenbosch University (SUNScholar) **Link:** [hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1212](http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1212) · not in the library (download failed, 2026-10-17) · **Licence:** free to read, no CC licence — summary only

[**8** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2105948836) openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14[SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)](https://openalex.org/S4306400300)

- [Publisher's page](http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1212)
- [PDF](https://scholar.sun.ac.za:443/bitstream/10019.1/1212/3/runge_discourse_2007.pdf)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2105948836)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Steven E. Runge](https://openalex.org/A5016145580) h 2 · 68 citations · 11 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex-snapshot (2026-10-14); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

**Not read: the PDF could not be fetched.** From the title and the dissertation's known approach (cognitive-functional, after Levinsohn and Givón): Runge describes how Hebrew narrative refers to participants — by full noun phrase, by name, by pronoun, or only by verb agreement — and argues that each context has a *default* encoding (minimal when the subject continues, a noun phrase when it switches). Departures from the default are meaningful: more encoding than needed ("over-encoding") marks a new episode, a climax or a change of perspective; less than needed marks continuity of a group of actors. Check against the text.

## Ideas

- I1. (to check) Default-encoding model on the Torah trees: for each clause, record whether the subject continues from the previous clause and how it is encoded (none, pronoun, noun, name); the cross-table gives the default for each context.
- I2. (to check) Flag over-encoded subjects (a full name for an active, continuing subject) and test whether they cluster at paragraph marks or before speech.
- I3. Use the default as a coreference prior: a verb-only clause after a same-subject clause keeps the subject; after an over-encoded switch, the new referent becomes the active one.

## For Mova

I1–I3 are the participant-tracking work of [Discourse: narrative, speech and the shape of a text](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/09-discourse/) §9 and a coreference step on `tools/macula` trees (the `coref` crate's ideas carried to hbo); I2 also feeds paragraphing (§8). This is probably the most useful of the unread works; fetch it first. Re-read once the PDF is in.

Topics: [Discourse analysis](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/topics/discourse-analysis/)

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```
@inproceedings{runge2007discourse,
  title = {{A Discourse-Functional Description of Participant Reference in Biblical Hebrew Narrative}},
  author = {Runge, Steven E.},
  booktitle = {SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)},
  year = {2007},
  url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1212}
}
```

- [← previous Discourse Structure, Verb Forms, and Archaism in Psalm 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2006-longacre-discourse-structure-verb-forms-archaism/)
- [next → Politeness Strategies in Biblical Hebrew and West African Languages](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2007-warren-rothlin-politeness-strategies-biblical-hebrew-west/)
- [↑ back to Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/)