---
title: "NP References to Active Participants and Story Development in Ancient Hebrew — Levinsohn 2000"
description: "The full text is not in the library (the download was blocked); this card rests on the repository's abstract, so the ideas are provisional."
authors: ["Stephen H. Levinsohn"]
year: 2000
venue: "Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics University of North Dakota Session"
source: "https://doi.org/10.31356/silwp.vol44.01"
doi: "10.31356/silwp.vol44.01"
licence: "Open access (free to read); no CC licence stated — read only (Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics University of North Dakota Session)"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/levinsohn-2018-np-references-active-participants-story/"
---
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# NP References to Active Participants and Story Development in Ancient Hebrew

**Authors:** Stephen H. Levinsohn · **Year:** 2000 (online 2018) · **Venue:** Work Papers of the SIL, University of North Dakota Session, vol. 44 **Link:** [doi.org/10.31356/silwp.vol44.01](https://doi.org/10.31356/silwp.vol44.01) · **Licence:** copyrighted (free to read, no CC licence) — summary only

[**4** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2936069400) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 · [Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics University of North Dakota Session](https://openalex.org/S4210223709)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.31356/silwp.vol44.01)
- [PDF](https://commons.und.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1365&context=sil-work-papers)
- [DOI 10.31356/silwp.vol44.01](https://doi.org/10.31356/silwp.vol44.01)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2936069400)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Stephen H. Levinsohn](https://openalex.org/A5002099189) h 8 · 398 citations · 164 works

Citations and author metrics: OpenAlex, 2026-10-14; authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

The full text is not in the library (the download was blocked); this card rests on the repository's abstract, so the ideas are provisional. Languages usually name an already active participant with a full noun phrase, instead of a pronoun or verb agreement, in two places even when the subject does not change: at the start of a narrative unit and to highlight a speech or action. Comparing Hebrew narrative with two languages that mark new developments with a conjunction or preverbal particle, Levinsohn finds Hebrew uses many more full NPs for active participants, and argues that in Hebrew a full NP also marks a new development in the story: the work other languages give to a particle.

## Ideas

- I1. Count, in Torah narrative, wayyiqtol clauses with an explicit subject NP whose referent was already the subject of the previous clause (no switch). These are the candidate "development" or "highlight" points.
- I2. A prag/discourse rule: same-subject full NP after a wayyiqtol chain → new development / unit boundary; check against the paragraph marks (petuhot/setumot) and the JPS paragraphing.
- I3. Participant tracking: before treating a full NP as a switch of subject, compare it with the last subject; keep "same referent, renamed" as a separate category.

## For Mova

I1–I3 apply to participant tracking in [languages/hbo/09-discourse.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/09-discourse/) and to `tools/macula/src/prag.rs` (a segment/boundary signal next to the speech-frame carrying). The count runs on the Torah trees with lemma identity as a cheap proxy for coreference.

Topics[Hebrew & Aramaic](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/hebrew-aramaic/) · [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/)

## Cite

Cite as Stephen H. Levinsohn. 2018. NP References to Active Participants and Story Development in Ancient Hebrew. Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics University of North Dakota Session.

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.31356/silwp.vol44.01](https://doi.org/10.31356/silwp.vol44.01)

```bibtex
@inproceedings{levinsohn2018np,
  title = {{NP References to Active Participants and Story Development in Ancient Hebrew}},
  author = {Stephen H. Levinsohn},
  booktitle = {Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics University of North Dakota Session},
  year = {2018},
  doi = {10.31356/silwp.vol44.01},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.31356/silwp.vol44.01}
}
```

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