Focus and Foreground The Cognitive Dimension

447 consideration so that the DEICTIC and ORIENTATION functions are represented in the new version.

10.5.1.3 Focus and Foreground

First of all, one of the major difficulties in this area of research is that terms like foreground and background imply a binary distinction that does not accurately reflect the multidimensional nature of language. There are multiple levels of saliency as all linguistic components perform their various functions, working together to make effective communication possible. Background is just as important as foreground in the overall communicative process. So, as discussed in 3.4.8, does “mark the main segments of a narrative” Schneider, p. 265 and “distinguish the main story from the embedded stories” Talstra 1978, 173? A proper answer to this question would involve detailed analysis of the narrative contours of each book in the Hebrew Bible. This is beyond the scope of the present study, but some preliminary observations can be offered here. In 4.1.3, the question was asked whether there is some significance marked in Jonah by the occurrences of with the storm, Jonah being in the fish’s belly, and the sunrise. Do these occurrences help distinguish the main story from the embedded stories? Based on the occurrences in Jonah, the distinction between main and embedded stories does not appear to apply. The occurrences in 1:1 and 3:1 are both in FORMULAIC expressions, but alone is not responsible for the division of the book into two halves. The verbal occurrence in 1:4, +G , is part of the setting for the ship episode, performing its function as ORIENTATION , which also includes the + noun 448 structures: +G 6 and 8 - - 2 . To say that +G has some peculiar role merely because occurs with it is artificial. Longacre claims that “does not function on the storyline of a narrative” 1989, 66, yet in BHRG, the claim is made that may indicate a state of affairs that plays a pivotal role in the subsequent narrative or it may indicate an event that is not mere background van der Merwe, Naudé, Kroeze 1999, 333. These claims reveal the complexity of the systems of reference in narrative and demonstrate the need for a more nuanced view of narrative strategy than is possible within a binary approach to foreground and background. This is an area deserving much more research. The classification of the examples of presented in the preceding chapters has been done with the hope of contributing to this ongoing research. The syntactic connections of and its uses as a WAYYIQTOL argue, however, for a role in the narrative at the same level as all other WAYYIQTOL s. At this point, integral role seems more appropriate and judicious than pivotal role, but more research is needed in this important area.

10.6 Pointers for Encounters With