Multivocality in Group Speech in Biblical Narrative

What it is about

By convention a group in biblical narrative speaks with one voice: וַיֹּאמְרוּ, or וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל־אָחִיו, and the group acts as one character, in line with the folk-tale "rule of two to a scene". Savran studies the exceptions, where a group speech holds several voices: explicit subgroups ("some said …" three times in Neh 5:2–4), trial scenes with turns (Jer 26), complaints that may come from different parties (Exod 17:2–4, as Ibn Ezra suggested), and deliberations introduced by "each said to his brother" — Joseph's brothers (Gen 37:19–20; 42:21–22), the sailors in Jonah, the debate over David's return (2 Sam 19). Multivocality dramatises disagreement or prepares a later unified voice. A plural "they said" should not be assumed to be one voice; syntax and context decide.

Ideas

• I1. Treat וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל־אָחִיו / אֶל־רֵעֵהוּ as a deliberation frame: the quote that follows is a group discussion, and the act is a proposal or question, not a statement by one speaker.
• I2. When one plural frame introduces a quote whose parts change person, topic or stance (Gen 42:21–22, Gen 37:19–20 then Reuben's separate speech), allow the quote to split into several voices of the same group; record speaker = group with a voice index.
• I3. List the Torah's plural speech frames (וַיֹּאמְרוּ with a group subject) and count how many are followed by a reply from a named member of that group — a cue that the group was not of one mind.

For Mova

I1–I2 apply to the speech-part reader of tools/macula/src/prag.rs (frames and quotes, amar, inner-frame, propose) and to Discourse: narrative, speech and the shape of a text §4; I3 is a measure on the Torah trees.

Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. DOI 10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25

@article{savran2009multivocality,
  title = {{Multivocality in Group Speech in Biblical Narrative}},
  author = {Savran, George},
  journal = {Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 9},
  year = {2009},
  doi = {10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5508/jhs.2009.v9.a25}
}

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