Corpus Linguistics and Textual History: A Computer-Assisted Interdisciplinary Approach to the Peshitta (review)

Hebrew Studies 48 (2007) 390 Reviews explained as analogous to “the popularity of Hasmonean dynastic names for males.” His question shows both scholarly creativity and an awareness that women did play a part in ancient Jewish nationalism. Finally, this book is very well written and edited. It, however, presumes that the audience has access to maps elsewhere and uses a puzzling mix of original scripts and transliterated Hebrew and Greek. In short, this book belongs in the library of every scholar who studies Hebrew literature and the Second Temple period, and it will surely inspire continuing explications of ancient Jewish nationalism that employ not only the ancient sources but also theoretical considerations seen up to this point only in studies of modern nationalism. Honora Howell Chapman California State University, Fresno Fresno, CA 93740 hchapman@csufresno.edu CORPUS LINGUISTICS AND TEXTUAL HISTORY: A COMPUTER-ASSISTED INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE PESHITTA. Edited by P. S. F. van Keulen and W. Th. van Peursen. SSN 48. Pp. ix + 367. Assen: Van Gorcum, 2006. Cloth,
98,50. $126.15. This anthology, which was submitted to Van Gorcum for publication in 2005, offers the first fruits of a suggestion that Konrad Jenner had made to Eep Talstra, the director of the Werkgroep Informatica Vrije Universitet (WIVU, Amsterdam), to establish a joint research project to explore the application of computer-aided corpus linguistics to the study of the Peshitta translation of the Hebrew Bible. This collection is redacted from two sources. The first section contains seventeen papers from a seminar of the Computer-Aided Linguistic Analysis of the Peshitta, the research project founded by Jenner and Talstra, which took place on April 3–4, 2003. This research project reflects an already established trend in Hebrew and Greek biblical literature, attested in publications such as J. Cook, ed., Bible and Computer. The Stellenbosch AIBI-6 Conference. Proceedings of the Association Internationale Bible et Informatique “From Alpha to Byte” University of Stellenbosch 17–21 July, 2000 (Leiden: Brill, 2002), not to mention the work that has been done on Syriac lexicography published by Gorgias Press in its Perspectives on Syriac Linguistics series. The second section offers an illustration of methods of computer analysis and the types of questions such analysis can provide, taking the Peshitta of 1 Kings [4 Reigns] Hebrew Studies 48 (2007) 391 Reviews 2:1–9, David’s speech to Solomon from his deathbed, as the experimental subject. This work presents a sophisticated level of engagement of Peshitta studies with the computer-assisted analysis of the Hebrew Bible that was the focus of WIVU. This book, particularly the first section, presents specific topics that reflect questions of importance for the researchers and is thus by no means a comprehensive introduction to the application of computer technology to the Peshitta. Technical vocabulary found in these articles is usually not explained, nor are the basic concepts of computer-assisted linguistics. The papers of section one are in a thesis-response format, so that the reader has some sense of continuity and debate that the questions generated by keynote papers were generated in the seminar. Many of the articles in the first section address methodological questions that arise in converting the text of the Peshitta into a machine-readable format, including what information should be associated with each level of grammatical parsing. The two papers read by Talstra, Jenner, and Van Peursen form the backbone of the first section. The first, entitled “CALAP: An Interdisciplinary Debate Between Textual Criticism, Textual History, and Computer-Assisted Linguistic Analysis” presents the history and research program of CALAP, introduces fundamental methodological questions, and questions basic assumptions : concerning the relationship between the MT of the Leningrad Codex and the Peshitta generally and the Leiden edition in particular, as well as the theoretical assumptions concerning what elements constitute a description of a human language grammar. The second paper, “How to Transfer Research Questions into Linguistic Data Types and Analytical Instruments,” describes how the techniques developed by WIVU were refitted for use with the Peshitta, which would include generating data for new questions, especially concerning translation, as well as the software that was designed to present and compare Hebrew and Syriac data. That software generated...