Monday, June 15, 2020

"Deflected Agreement" in Scripture

There are instances in the Book of Mormon where plural nouns are coupled with a verb, not in the plural, but the singular, including some texts that describe the persons of the Father, Son, and Spirit as being “is” not “are” one God. This is called “Deflected Agreement.” As Andrew Smith noted in his excellent article on this topic:

 

Deflected agreement is a technical term borrowed from the Arabic linguistics community that is also descriptive of a particular phenomenon in classical Hebrew. This term describes a grammatical principle generally referred to by Arab linguists as “feminine singular agreement with nonhuman plurals.” The basis of grammatical agreement in Semitic languages is that words from different categories or parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.), when grammatically juxtaposed to one another, must agree in a number of details: number, gender, and, to a certain degree, definiteness. A type of DA, wherein parts of speech are grammatically juxtaposed but do not agree in number or gender, is also seen in biblical Hebrew, albeit more rarely. According to Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, “Plurals of names of animals or things, and of abstracts, whether they be masculine or feminine, are frequently construed with the feminine singular of the verbal predicate.” Similarly, the grammar also notes that “the suffix of the 3rd person singular feminine (as also the separate pronoun [hîʾ] . . .) sometimes refers in a general sense to the verbal idea contained in a preceding sentence (corresponding to our it). . . . Elsewhere the suffix of the 3rd singular feminine refers to the plurals of things . . . and to the plurals of names of animals.” These grammatical principles will be illustrated by the following from the Hebrew Bible:

 

Joel 1:20

 

Transliteration (Hebrew):

bahămôt śādeh taʿărôg

 

Parsing of individual words: bahămôt (fem pl noun construct state) śādeh (masc sing noun) taʿărôg (3rd fem sing imperfect verb)

 

Translation: the beasts of the field desire

 

Psalm 37:31

 

Transliteration (Hebrew):

lōʾ timʿad ʾăšūrāyw

 

Parsing: ʾ (negative particle) timʿad (3rd fem sing imperfect verb) ʾăšūrāyw (masc pl noun + 3rd person masc sing possessive)

 

Translation: his steps do not slide

 

Jeremiah 12:4

 

Transliteration (Hebrew): sāptâ bĕhēmôt wāʿôp

 

Parsing: sāptâ (3rd fem sing perfect verb) bĕhēmôt (fem pl noun) (conjunctive particle) -ʿôp (masc sing collective noun)

 

Translation: the beasts and birds are consumed

 

Jeremiah 36:23

 

Transliteration (Hebrew): kiqrôʾ yĕhûdî šālōš dĕlātôt wĕʾabāʿâ yiqrāʿehā bĕtaʿar hassōpēr

 

Parsing: kiqrôʾ (qal infinitive verb, construct) yĕhûdî šālōš dĕlātôt (fem pl noun) wĕʾabāʿâ yiqrāʿehā (3rd masc sing imperfect verb + 3rd fem sing suffix) bĕtaʿar hassōpēr

 

Translation: when Yehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it (the leaves) with the penknife. (Andrew C. Smith, "Deflected Agreement in the Book of Mormon," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 21/2 [2012]:40-57, here, pp. 42-43)