[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2019-bijl-probabilistic-approach-syntactic-variation-biblical/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [docs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/) / [papers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/) / [Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/) / A Probabilistic Approach to Syntactic Variation in Biblical Hebrew # A Probabilistic Approach to Syntactic Variation in Biblical Hebrew **Authors:** Etienne P. van de Bijl, Cody Kingham, [Wido van Peursen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/wido-van-peursen/), [Sandjai Bhulai](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/sandjai-bhulai/) · **Year:** 2019 (report dated 2018) · **Venue:** Zenodo (ETCBC project report) **Link:** [zenodo.org/records/2546802](https://zenodo.org/records/2546802) · **Licence:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) [**5** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2920199237) openalex · 2026-10-18[**2** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/hbo-2019-bijl-probabilistic-approach-syntactic-variation-biblical/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)](https://openalex.org/S4306400562)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) - [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2546801) - [PDF](https://zenodo.org/records/2546802/files/A_probabilistic_approach_to_model_syntax_variation_in_Hewbrew_Biblical_texts.pdf) - [DOI 10.5281/zenodo.2546801](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2546801) - [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2920199237) **Authors (4)** 1. Etienne P. van de Bijl 2. [Cody Kingham](https://openalex.org/A5021139225) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8625-6773) · h 2 · 16 citations · 26 works 3. [Wido van Peursen](https://openalex.org/A5016185660) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3142-5752) · h 9 · 290 citations · 204 works 4. [Sandjai Bhulai](https://openalex.org/A5026617038) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1124-8821) · h 26 · 2300 citations · 249 works Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-18); authors with the same name are not always told apart. ## What it is about The authors test whether syntax alone separates Standard (early) from Late Biblical Hebrew books. From the ETCBC BHSA data (Text-Fabric) they take, per clause, the sequence of word parts of speech, phrase types and phrase functions, separately for narrative and quotation, after removing clauses that are near-copies (>75%) of clauses in other books (e.g. Chronicles from Kings). Each book becomes a first-order Markov chain of transitions; books are compared by the mean Hellinger distance between rows of their transition matrices, then clustered (Ward hierarchical, k-medoids). Single features give mixed clusters (Joshua with Daniel); only when distances are averaged over all features and both domains do the groups resemble the classic division: Ezra–Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, Song of Songs on one side, Genesis–Kings on the other, with Exodus, Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes and Chronicles in between. ## Ideas - I1. A book-distance measure for Mova's trees: per book and domain (narrative vs speech, which `prag` already separates by voice), transition matrices of UPOS and of dependency relations along the clause, compared by mean Hellinger distance. Deterministic and cheap; a sanity check that the five Torah books cluster and that Deuteronomy's speech stands apart. - I2. Use dependency paths instead of linear bigrams (the authors' own suggestion): head–dependent relation pairs per book, which the trees give directly. - I3. Method rule for dating claims in chapter 12: remove parallel passages first, split narrative from speech, and report only features that survive across several feature sets. ## For Mova I1 and I2 are a small measure over torah-wlc-macula (now Torah only; the rest of the Bible when converted) for [12. Biblical, Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew compared](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/12-biblical-mishnaic-modern/) (the dating debate). The narrative/speech split comes from `tools/macula/src/prag.rs`. I3 is text for chapter 12. ## Cite The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.5281/zenodo.2546801](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2546801) ``` @inproceedings{bijl2019probabilistic, title = {{A Probabilistic Approach to Syntactic Variation in Biblical Hebrew}}, author = {Bijl, Etienne P. van de and Kingham, Cody and Peursen, Wido van and Bhulai, Sandjai}, booktitle = {Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)}, year = {2019}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.2546801}, url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2546801} } ``` - [← previous Towards a complex analysis of Wayihî + T constructions in Biblical Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2018-westbury-towards-complex-analysis-wayihi-t/) - [next → A Linguistic Reappraisal of the Biblical Hebrew Accusative](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2019-boulet-linguistic-reappraisal-biblical-hebrew-accusative/) - [↑ back to Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/) ## References 18 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Al-Anzi, F.S. and D. M. AbuZeina (2016). “A Survey of Markov Chain Models in Linguistics Applications”. In: Computer Science and Information Technology, pp. 53–62. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Al%2DAnzi%2C+F%2ES%2E+and+D%2E+M%2E+AbuZeina+%282016%29%2E+%E2%80%9CA+Survey+of+Markov+Chain+Models+in+Linguistics+Applications%E2%80%9D%2E+In%3A+Computer+Science+and+Information+Technology%2C+pp%2E+53%E2%80%9362%2E) 2. Anderson, T.W. and L.A. Goodman (1956). Statistical Inference About Markov Chains, p. 92. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Anderson%2C+T%2EW%2E+and+L%2EA%2E+Goodman+%281956%29%2E+Statistical+Inference+About+Markov+Chains%2C+p%2E+92%2E) 3. Bijl, Etienne Pieter van de and Cody Kingham (2018). Analysis Notebook: A Probabilistic Approach to Linguistic Variation and Change in Biblical Hebrew. [https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/ETCBC/](https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/ETCBC/) Probabilistic_Language_Change/blob/master/ analysis.ipynb. 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