Suspense and Authority amid Biblical Hebrew Front Dislocation

Abstract

This study investigates front dislocation in Biblical Hebrew from a cognitive–semiotic perspective, employing evidence from Structure Building Framework theory to explain how the syntagm's formal components trigger psychological dynamics that yield rhetorical impacts. By momentarily suspending full alignment between linguistic code and message, front dislocation leverages ambiguity between expression and meaning, placing the listener into an acutely amplified state of expectation and bolstering the authority of the speaker over the communication event.