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# Stones on Display in Joshua 6: The Linguistic Tree Constructor as a "Persuasive Technology"

**Authors:** [Nicolai Winther-Nielsen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/nicolai-winther-nielsen/) · **Year:** 2012 · **Venue:** Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 12, article 17 **Link:** [jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/20511](https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/view/20511) · **Licence:** [CC BY 2.5](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/)

[**2** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2054654128) openalex · 2026-10-18[**1** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/hbo-2012-winther-nielsen-stones-display-joshua-6-linguistic/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 12](https://openalex.org/S2764683527)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2012.v12.a17)
- [PDF](https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/download/20511/15694)
- [DOI 10.5508/jhs.2012.v12.a17](https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2012.v12.a17)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2054654128)

**Authors (1)**

1. Nicolai Winther-Nielsen

Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-18); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

A reply to den Braber's (2010) complaint that the printed clause-by-clause displays of Joshua (Winther-Nielsen & Talstra 1995) are too complex for exegetes. The author proposes interactive tools instead: the open Linguistic Tree Constructor, loaded with the WIVU (later ETCBC) database, shows each word, phrase and clause of Joshua 6 as collapsible trees with labels, and lets a learner tag clause relations in a sidebar. For the inter-clausal labels he moves from Rhetorical Structure Theory to Renkema's (2009) Connectivity Model: two levels (informational adjunction, interactional interjunction), six families and sixteen categories (elaboration; sequence, contrast, disjunction; place, time, manner, cause; presentation, comment; explanation, metatext, quotation; attention, acceptance, action), with four-letter codes. The paper is a design proposal framed by "persuasive learning technology"; no evaluation is reported.

## Ideas

- I1. Use the sixteen Connectivity categories (with the four-letter codes) as a candidate label set for clause-to-clause relations in the Hebrew discourse layer; several map directly to Hebrew markers: SEQU (wayyiqtol chain), CONT (we-X-qatal with a contrasted subject), CAUS (כִּי), TIME (בְּ/כְּ + infinitive, וַיְהִי), QUOT (לֵאמֹר).
- I2. Start with the marker-driven subset and count its coverage over the Torah: how many clause pairs get a relation from an explicit marker alone, and which pairs remain unlabelled.
- I3. A collapsible clause/phrase view for learners is what the Torah course page could show from our trees; no new data is needed.

## For Mova

I1 and I2 are for [Discourse: narrative, speech and the shape of a text](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/09-discourse/) and a possible relation column beside `tools/macula/src/prag.rs` (which so far labels sentences, not links between clauses). I3 is a display idea for the Torah course and parse database (`13-mova-tools.md`, section 10).

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.5508/jhs.2012.v12.a17](https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2012.v12.a17)

```
@article{winthernielsen2012stones,
  title = {{Stones on Display in Joshua 6: The Linguistic Tree Constructor as a "Persuasive Technology"}},
  author = {Winther-Nielsen, Nicolai},
  journal = {Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 12},
  year = {2012},
  doi = {10.5508/jhs.2012.v12.a17},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2012.v12.a17}
}
```

- [← previous The Morphology of the tG-Stem in Hebrew and tirgaltî in Hos 11:3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2012-hutton-morphology-tg-stem-hebrew-tirgalti/)
- [next → An Optative Indicative? A Real Factual Past? Toward a Cognitive-Typological Approach to the Precative Qatal](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2013-andrason-optative-indicative-real-factual-past/)
- [↑ back to Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/)

## References

23 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

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