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# Towards a discourse-pragmatic description of left-dislocation in biblical Hebrew

**Authors:** Joshua Westbury · **Year:** 2010 · **Venue:** MA thesis, Stellenbosch University (SUNScholar) **Link:** [hdl.handle.net/10019.1/5258](http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/5258) · not in the library (download failed, 2026-10-17) · **Licence:** free to read, no CC licence — summary only

[**3** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2158462549) openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14[**1** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/hbo-2010-westbury-towards-discourse-pragmatic-description-left/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)](https://openalex.org/S4306400300)

- [Publisher's page](http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/5258)
- [PDF](https://scholar.sun.ac.za:443/bitstream/10019.1/5258/1/westbury_towards_2010.pdf)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2158462549)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Josh Westbury](https://openalex.org/A5019886629) h 4 · 58 citations · 10 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 author's later papers on the same topic (2014, 2016, also in our library): left dislocation is a construction where a noun phrase stands before the clause and is taken up inside it by a resumptive pronoun or suffix. The thesis describes its discourse-pragmatic functions in a cognitive framework (Lambrecht's activation states of referents): introducing or re-activating a referent as topic, marking contrast, or setting a frame for what follows. Check against the text, and compare with the 2014 and 2016 cards.

## Ideas

- I1. (to check) Detect left dislocations in the Torah trees: a clause-initial NP followed by a clause containing a co-referent pronoun or suffix (UD `dislocated`); count them and list them by book and genre.
- I2. (to check) For each dislocated NP, measure the distance (in clauses) to its previous mention: none (new), far (re-activation), near (contrast or framing). Report the distribution as the functional profile.
- I3. In the event reader, a dislocated NP sets the topic of the following clause(s); resolve the resumptive pronoun to it.

## For Mova

I1 is a converter check in `tools/macula` (`dislocated`); I2 a measure for [Syntax: the clause and the sentence](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/08-syntax/) (dislocation) and `09-discourse.md`; I3 applies to coreference in the world reader. 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{westbury2010discourse,
  title = {{Towards a discourse-pragmatic description of left-dislocation in biblical Hebrew}},
  author = {Westbury, Josh},
  booktitle = {SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)},
  year = {2010},
  url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/5258}
}
```

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