The Pragmatics of Perception and Cognition in MT Jeremiah 1:1-6:30

Perception and cognition - seeing, hearing and understanding - are main themes in the Biblical Hebrew text of Jeremiah 1:1-6:30. This volume examines the text using a cognitive linguistics approach. This recently developed approach allows the modern reader to more fully understand the ancient text by observing aspects of embodied experience that are shared across time, space and culture, such as image schemas, conceptual metaphor and more elaborate conceptual blends. In addition to offering insights into some key textual disjunctions, these findings contribute towards reading and understanding the final form of the text.

Autorentext

Elizabeth R. Hayes, University of Oxford, Bothell, USA.

Zusammenfassung

Recent advances in cognitive linguistics provide new avenues for reading and interpreting Biblical Hebrew prophetic text. This volume utilises a multi-layered cognitive linguistics approach to explore Jeremiah 1:1-6:30, incorporating insights from cognitive grammar, cognitive science and conceptual blending theory. While the modern reader is separated from the originators of these texts by time, space and culture, this analysis rests on the theory that both the originators and the modern reader share common features of embodied experience. This opens the way for utilising cognitive models, conceptual metaphor and mental spaces theory when reading and interpreting ancient texts.
This volume provides an introduction to cognitive theory and method. Initially, short examples from Jeremiah 1:1-6:30 are used to introduce the theory and method. This is followed by a detailed comparison of traditional and cognitive approaches to Biblical Hebrew grammar. These insights are then applied to further examples taken from Jeremiah 1:1-6:30 in order to test and refine the approach. These findings show that Jeremiah 1:1-1:3 establishes perspective for the text as a whole and that subsequent shifts in perspective may be tracked using aspects of mental spaces theory. Much of the textual content yields to concepts derived from conceptual metaphor studies and from conceptual blending theory, which are introduced and explained using examples taken from Jeremiah 1:1-6:30.
The entire analysis demonstrates some of the strengths and weaknesses of using recent cognitive theories and methods for analysing and interpreting ancient texts. While such theories and methods do not obviate the need for traditional interpretive methods, they do provide a more nuanced understanding of the ancient text.