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# Interaction in Biblical Hebrew Narrative: A Conversation-Analytic Approach

**Authors:** Tyler Patty · **Year:** 2026 · **Venue:** PhD thesis, University of Cambridge (Apollo repository) **Link:** [repository.cam.ac.uk/items/aac07ba1-2170-401f-a043-eb6ad844f7ba](https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/aac07ba1-2170-401f-a043-eb6ad844f7ba) · **Licence:** free to read, no CC licence; full text embargoed until 2027-10 — summary only

[**0** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W7221105821) openalex · 2026-10-18[Apollo (University of Cambridge)](https://openalex.org/S4306401777)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.135624)
- [PDF](https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/2132c35b-fe42-427c-b983-9d81dd562663/download)
- [DOI 10.17863/cam.135624](https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.135624)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W7221105821)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Tyler Patty](https://openalex.org/A5025766188) h 1 · 1 citations · 2 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 full text is not in the library (embargoed); this card rests on the repository abstract, and its ideas are provisional. The thesis applies Conversation Analysis to the dialogues of Biblical Hebrew narrative. Its claims: reading dialogue well needs competence in the conventions of conversation of the culture and the language; the reader should attend to how the narrator describes the speaking (the quotative frame); each turn should be read for what it is doing (its pragmatic aim) as well as for its form; and the meaning lies in sequences of turns (question and answer, request and compliance or refusal), not in single lines.

## Ideas

- I1. Give `prag` a sequence layer: for each quote, link it to the previous quote by a different speaker as its first pair part (question → answer, request → compliance/refusal, accusation → defence, offer → acceptance), and count the pair types in the Torah. A turn that does not fit its first pair part (an answer that is not an answer) is a marked turn worth a flag.
- I2. Treat the quotative frame as data: record per quote the verb of saying (אָמַר, דִּבֶּר, עָנָה, קָרָא, צִוָּה), whether לֵאמֹר follows, and whether the addressee is named; then test whether עָנָה marks a second pair part more often than אָמַר.

## For Mova

I1 is an extension of the speech carrying already in `tools/macula/src/prag.rs` (quotes and speakers are cut there), with the tally in [Discourse: narrative, speech and the shape of a text](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/09-discourse/) (direct speech). I2 is a count on the Torah trees for `09-discourse.md` (direct speech and לֵאמֹר); see also the Miller-Naudé 2026 card on quotative frames.

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.17863/cam.135624](https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.135624)

```
@inproceedings{patty2026interaction,
  title = {{Interaction in Biblical Hebrew Narrative: A Conversation-Analytic Approach}},
  author = {Patty, Tyler},
  booktitle = {Apollo (University of Cambridge)},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.17863/cam.135624},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.135624}
}
```

- [← previous How far back in antiquity can we trace the oral tradition underlying Tiberian Hebrew?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2026-joosten-far-back-antiquity-trace-oral/)
- [next → MiqraBERT: Regression-Based Sentence-BERT Finetuning for Biblical Hebrew Parallel Detection](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2026-smiley-miqrabert-regression-based-sentence-bert/)
- [↑ back to Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/)