92 14:1-2, where the kings Amraphel, Arioch, Kedorlaomer, Tedal, Bera, Birsha, Shinab,
Shemeber, and Zoar are all named, it seems clear that the “un-naming” of Pharaoh in Exodus 1 is a pragmatically motivated choice, which results in diminished prominence of
the otherwise powerful Pharaoh.
5.2.4.1 Text-Types and Genre
The Discourse-Pragmatic Orientation also includes awareness of basic genre distinctions or text-types that need to be taken into account when reading or analyzing
any text. For the reader, awareness of the genre of the text is one of the most important starting points, since the genre of the text affects reading strategy. When readers “start to
read a text, they make a conscious or unconscious genre identification, which involves further expectations concerning what is to come” Longman 1996, 141. Genre, in
Longman’s Literary Approaches and other literary analyses, typically refers to the synchronic identification of “the type of literature” to which a text belongs Longman
1996, 141. The approach implemented here recognizes the need to identify the genre of the whole text, but greater attention to discourse-pragmatic considerations is needed. For
example, within a text classified as narrative which “emphasizes that there is a succession of events” Longman 1996, 141, there will typically be other text-types which
accompany the events. From a discourse-pragmatic perspective, genre is an integral part of the communication process. The speaker or writer employs the characteristic features
of genre as a mechanism for accomplishing his or her communicative goals. The model implemented here is indebted to Longacre’s description in The
Grammar of Discourse Longacre 1996, which seeks to identify the types of textual
93 components which make up the whole narrative. Longacre’s approach posits Narrative,
Procedural, Behavioral, and Expository as the basic text-types in text Longacre 1996, 10:
+Agent Orientation -Agent Orientation
NARRATIVE PROCEDURAL
+ Contingent Prophecy
How-to-do-it + Projection
Succession Story
How-it-was-done - Projection
BEHAVIORAL EXPOSITORY
- Contingent Hortatory
Proposal + Projection
Succession Eulogy
Scientific paper - Projection
Figure 6: Basic Text-Types Longacre 1996, 10
Longacre states that …we can classify all possible discourses in all languages according to two
basic etic parameters: contingent temporal succession and agent orientation. Contingent temporal succession henceforth contingent
succession refers to a framework of temporal succession in which some often most of the events or doings are contingent on previous events or
doings. Agent orientation refers to orientation towards agents with at least a partial identity of agent reference running through the discourse.
Longacre 1996, 9
These text-types or genre provide basic parameters for discerning the essential character of the text being studied. In the approach implemented here, these text-types
are not rigidly imposed on the text, but rather are fluid, allowing for overlap and fuzzy borders between the basic types. Longman discusses the “fluid concept of genre,” in
contrast to the rigid “one text, one genre” approach of Gunkel and other nineteenth century genre theorists. Longman states that one of the benefits of a fluid approach “is
94 that it demands that the exegete attend as closely to the peculiarities of the text as to its
similarities” Longman 1996, 143. The text-types posited by Longacre allow for greater precision than the two-way
distinction that Niccacci makes between narrative and discourse. For Niccacci, the basic division in biblical Hebrew is between the narrative framework and reported speech using
the terms narrative and discourse for these two text-types Niccacci 1994, 119. This is an important distinction, but within these two major types, further classification is
necessary. The concept of fluidity allows for the shifts from one type to another— sometimes subtle and other times more obvious—that are used as rhetorical strategies in
the communicative development of the text. The model implemented here takes a position between Niccacci and Longacre. The narrative-discourse distinction of Niccacci
is significant, but needs greater sensitivity to text types. Longacre’s model also has its merits, but needs to be applied fluidly.
In the present analysis, an awareness of text-type is fundamental. There is undoubtedly a crucial distinction between the two types which Niccacci refers to as
narrative and discourse, but the terms preferred here are narrative and reported speech. More important than the actual terms, however, is sensitivity to the text’s transitions and
movements which can affect the grammatical and syntactic realization of the text.
5.2.4.2 Cohesion and Coherence
