The poetic vividness of the book of Hosea is often attributed to the lexical and metaphorical characteristics of its language. However, its patterns of clause type usage also contribute to its unique semantic and pragmatic expressiveness. This study uses the theoretical perspective and analytical categories of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to explore the discourse-pragmatic meanings and contexts of clause-initial yiqṭol constructions (∅-yiqṭol) in the book of Hosea.
In recent research on cohesion and clause combining in Hosea 12–14 (Turner 2023), the yiqṭol construction functioned according to expected patterns of its aspect and contextually determined tense nuance (Holmstedt and Cook 2009; Isaksson 2015, 2021). However, clause-initial yiqṭol constructions (∅-yiqṭol) often deviated from expected patterns of modality. Specifically, clause-initial yiqṭol constructions appeared to have an indicative function in contexts that would predict non-indicative modality. Some occurrences of clause-initial yiqṭol inherit indicative mood because of contextual elements (Kalkman 2015; Joosten 2011). However, Hosea contains a number of clause-initial yiqṭol constructions where such elements are not present, which opens the possibly that they serve a heightened poetic style, may project an action as imagined or more vivid, or may serve other rhetorical purposes (Joüon and Muraoka, 2006; Van der Merwe, Naudé, and Kroeze 2017; Bergström 2022).
I analyze how the 45 occurrences of clause-initial yiqṭol in Hosea correlate with several variables of cohesion and clause combining, such as action type, participant reference, cohesive chain interaction, and the placement of contextual elements such as other nearby clause types and discourse particles. My results show that many of the 45 occurrences of clause-initial yiqṭol whose modality is unexpectedly indicative are explainable by contextual elements. However, the occurrences whose indicative modality cannot be accounted for contextually do seem to have a heightened poetic function in thematically central locations in the book. In some cases, clause-initial yiqṭol has ambiguity in meaning between volitive/purposive and indicative/result (e.g., Hos 13:8).
I conclude by discussing how analysis of clause type is an important variable for discourse-pragmatic analysis of prophetic poetry. I also suggest how the use of clause-initial yiqṭol in Hosea may be compared with its use in other prophetic books.