RT Article
T1 A hidden nusach: the linguistic literacy of the Maharam Lublin
JF Journal of Jewish studies
VO 74
IS 2
SP 382
OP 407
A1 Ohad Cohen, Bracha Nir
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1873039980
AB The study focuses on an individual rabbi from early-modern Poland, Maharam of Lublin, and on his proficiency as a writer. We explore the Maharam's competence in recruiting different linguistic devices to serve both specific textual functions and the overall communicative function of the text. Taking the combined perspectives of historical discourse analysis and usage-based corpus linguistics, we analyse one responsum as an example of this historically - and in our view linguistically - important source of study. Specifically, we investigate the distributions of the lexical items the Maharam employed in different textual units according to their linguistico-historical strata. Our analyses show that these distributions are either highly constrained or reflect a distributionally dominant component in each texteme, which corresponds to a particular discursive function. In writing this text, the Maharam skilfully and systematically transitions between different linguistic models. His command of the Hebrew strata reflects a literate, functionally motivated nusach.
K1 Early Modern Period
K1 Poland
K1 Ashkenazim
K1 Maharam of Lublin
K1 Responsa
K1 Hebrew
K1 Linguistics
K1 Historical Discourse Analysis
DO 10.18647/3588/jjs-2023