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# Left Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew: A Cognitive Linguistic Account

**Authors:** Joshua R. Westbury · **Year:** 2014 · **Venue:** PhD thesis, Stellenbosch University (Ancient Studies) **Link:** [scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/95852](https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/95852) · **Licence:** copyrighted — summary only (free to read, no CC licence stated)

[**15** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2124267101) openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14[**6** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/hbo-2014-westbury-left-dislocation-biblical-hebrew-cognitive/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)](https://openalex.org/S4306400300)

- [Publisher's page](https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/95852)
- [PDF](https://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstreams/47eeba9e-5619-406f-ac9e-dc5f58f26a4e/download)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2124267101)

**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

The full text is not in the library (the download was blocked); this card rests on the repository abstract, and its ideas are provisional. The thesis studies left dislocation, a constituent placed before the clause and taken up again inside it by a resumptive pronoun ("the land … I will give it to you"), as part of Biblical Hebrew word-order variation. It builds a cognitive-functional model from cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics and information structure, and compares it with cross-linguistic work on dislocation. More than 650 examples from Genesis to 2 Kings are described by their syntax and semantics and arranged as a network of constructional schemas, then explained by their functions in narrative, both prototypical and peripheral. A final part sketches how the construction developed, in a usage-based, "panchronic" view of grammar.

## Ideas

- I1. Detect left dislocation in the trees: a noun phrase before a clause, not its argument, with a coreferent pronoun (independent or suffixed) inside the clause. List the Torah hits by the role of the resumptive (subject, object suffix, possessor, prepositional object), as the first layer of a schema network like the thesis's.
- I2. A UD convention check: the dislocated phrase should be `dislocated` attached to the clause's head, and the resumptive keeps its own relation. Count how our converter attaches these cases now.
- I3. A `prag` rule (provisional, to be refined once the full text is read): dislocation at an episode start or after a change of speaker → topic (re)introduction; dislocation of a member of a set already mentioned → contrastive topic.

## For Mova

I1 and I2 belong to [Syntax: the clause and the sentence](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/08-syntax/) (dislocation) and the head rules of `tools/macula` (`13-mova-tools.md`, section 6). I3 is a candidate for `tools/macula/src/prag.rs` and `09-discourse.md`. The thesis's 650 examples (Genesis–2 Kings) would make a gold list for I1 if the full text is fetched later.

## Cite

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

```
@inproceedings{westbury2014left,
  title = {{Left Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew: A Cognitive Linguistic Account}},
  author = {Westbury, Josh},
  booktitle = {SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University)},
  year = {2014},
  url = {https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/95852}
}
```

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