---
title: "Syntactic Variation in Masoretic Hebrew: The Object Clause Reconsidered — Naaijer 2016"
description: "The paper takes two features of object clauses that have been used to date biblical texts: the order of a subject pronoun and a… Cited by 1 paper here."
authors: ["Martijn Naaijer", "Dirk Roorda"]
year: 2016
venue: "Journal for Semitics"
source: "https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2566"
doi: "10.25159/1013-8471/2566"
licence: "CC BY (per OpenAlex/publisher; Journal for Semitics)"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/naaijer-2017-syntactic-variation-masoretic-hebrew-object/"
---
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# Syntactic Variation in Masoretic Hebrew: The Object Clause Reconsidered

**Authors:** [Martijn Naaijer](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/martijn-naaijer/) and [Dirk Roorda](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/dirk-roorda/) · **Year:** 2016 (indexed 2017) · **Venue:** Journal for Semitics 25/2, 961–971 **Link:** [doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2566](https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2566) · **Licence:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

[**1** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2612720341) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 · [**1** citations in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/naaijer-2017-syntactic-variation-masoretic-hebrew-object/cited-by/) of the 140,884 papers whose bibliographies we read · [Journal for Semitics](https://openalex.org/S2764941181) · [licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2566)
- [PDF](https://pure.knaw.nl/portal/files/6097865/961_971NaaijerRoorda252Edit2.pdf)
- [DOI 10.25159/1013-8471/2566](https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2566)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2612720341)

**Authors (2)**

1. [Martijn Naaijer](https://openalex.org/A5044518872) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3325-0614) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/3148549) · h 3 · 16 citations · 24 works
2. [Dirk Roorda](https://openalex.org/A5005303591) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2680-8724) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2120315) · h 5 · 191 citations · 102 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; this card rests on the publisher's abstract, so the ideas are provisional. The paper takes two features of object clauses that have been used to date biblical texts: the order of a subject pronoun and a nominal predicate inside certain object clauses, and the choice between כִּי and אֲשֶׁר as the word that introduces an object clause ("he saw that …"). Instead of arguing from a handful of examples, the authors query every case in the Masoretic Text with the SHEBANQ / ETCBC tools, and ask how much variation there really is and what it can say about the date of a book.

## Ideas

- I2. In verbless object clauses, count pronoun–predicate vs predicate–pronoun order ("that he is X" vs "that X he is").
- I3. Method point for chapter 12: a dating feature counts only when measured over all its cases with the conditioning factors (verb, genre) held apart, not from a few contrasting examples.

## For Mova

- I1. Count the complementiser of object clauses in the Torah trees: `ccomp` (or `obj` headed by a clause) introduced by כִּי vs אֲשֶׁר, per book and per governing verb (רָאָה, יָדַע, שָׁמַע, אָמַר). Expectation from the literature: כִּי dominates in the Torah, אֲשֶׁר as complementiser is rarer and later.

I1 and I2 are counts on torah-wlc-macula for [languages/hbo/08-syntax.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/08-syntax/) (objects, subordination) and `05-pronouns-particles.md` (כִּי, אֲשֶׁר); they also check that `tools/macula` attaches כִּי/אֲשֶׁר object clauses as `ccomp` with `mark`. I3 belongs to the dating debate in `12-biblical-mishnaic-modern.md`.

## Institutions

[🎓**Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam** Amsterdam · Netherlands 31 works · 3,248 citations](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/vrije-universiteit-amsterdam/) · [🔬**Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS)** The Hague · Netherlands 6 works · 32 citations](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/labs/data-archiving-and-networked-services-dans/)

📚 Shelves 2[Linguistics & languages · 4,876 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/linguistics/) · [Ancient Hebrew · 226 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/hbo/)

🧭 Topics 2[Semitic languages · 1,334 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) · [Hebrew & Aramaic · 438 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/hebrew-aramaic/)

## Cite

Cite as Martijn Naaijer and Dirk Roorda. 2017. Syntactic Variation in Masoretic Hebrew: The Object Clause Reconsidered. Journal for Semitics.

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.25159/1013-8471/2566](https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2566)

```bibtex
@article{naaijer2017syntactic,
  title = {{Syntactic Variation in Masoretic Hebrew: The Object Clause Reconsidered}},
  author = {Martijn Naaijer and Dirk Roorda},
  journal = {Journal for Semitics},
  year = {2017},
  doi = {10.25159/1013-8471/2566},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2566}
}
```

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Updated 23 October 2026