UPPSALA UNIVERSITET : Institutionen för lingvistik och filologi : Bo Isaksson
Uppsala universitet
Hoppa över länkar

Bo Isaksson
The CCC-project
Forskning
Semitiska seminariet
LingfilSemitica
Links
400-årsjubileet

Bo Isaksson

Professor of Semitic Languages

Foto på Bo Isaksson

Contents:

Research profile

My current research project is Circumstantial Clause Combining in Semitic (Swedish Research Council 2010-2012, dnr 2009-2197; The "CCC-project"). It is an international project at Uppsala University in cooperation with Linguistics Department of The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Gothenburg University. It involves seven international scholars covering all major branches of Semitic..

Articles and papers so far in the CCC-project:

The CCC-project is an expansion of a pilot project , “Circumstantial qualifiers in Semitic. A comparative investigation of adjunct expressions in Arabic and Hebrew” (Swedish Research Council 2007-2009; called "The CQ-project"). The results of this project were published in the monograph Circumstantial qualifiers in Semitic: The case of Arabic and Hebrew, by Bo Isaksson, Heléne Kammensjö, and Maria Persson (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 70, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 2009). Apart from discussing enhancinig clauses specifically in Arabic and Hebrew, this book also came to contribute to our understanding of the general phenomenon of subordination in Semitic.

My articles written in connection with the pilot "CQ" project were (for more details see Articles and Reviews):

By choosing the term ‘Circumstantial clause combining’ (CCC) for the present research project I put emphasis on the relation between clauses, rather than on a specific syntactic clause type. Hypotaxis concerns a relation between two clauses, the head and the subordinate clause. This insight is fundamental for any understanding of hypotaxis in Semitic.

What is, in linguistic terms, a subordinate clause in a Semitic setting? How is a hypotactic relation marked in relation to the head clause? Such fundamental questions have never been answered in a satisfactory way by Semitic scholarship, in spite of the fact that ‘subordination’, or hypotaxis, is a core category in general linguistics.

The emphasis in the new project is given to the type of hypotactic clause relations which is often called ‘circumstantial’ . We do not primarily study relative clauses, nor subject and object clauses (occupying the subject or object ‘slot’ in a main clause).

Currently I concentrate my own study of CCC on early northwest Semitic, including early Hebrew poetry. Texts studied are taken from prophetic texts, the early Hebrew Psalms, Canaanite, Phoenician, Aramaic inscriptions, and Ugaritic texts. Other scholars will take care of the rest of Semitic.

The first fruits of this study is an article on clause combining i Isaiah: "The textlinguistics of the Suffering Servant: Subordinate structures in Isaiah 52:13-53:12", which was published in October 2011 in the Niccacci Festschrift, and a paper read at the 10th Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew 30 October 2011: "Clause-linking strategies in Standard Biblical Hebrew: Narrative and instructional discourse in Joseph’s speech (Gen 45: 3-15)".

Monographs

Isaksson, Bo, Heléne Kammensjö and Maria Persson. Circumstantial Qualifiers in Semitic: The case of Arabic and Hebrew. Edited by Bo Isaksson. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 70. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, (publication October 2009). ISBN 978-3 447 06111-7. (DiVA rererence).
CONTENTS and Short presentation. Amazon preview.
REVIEWS: John Kaltner in RBL, Lutz Edzard in JAOS.

Isaksson, Bo. Studies in the Language of Qoheleth. With Special Emphasis on the Verbal System. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 10. Uppsala, 1987.
The following sections are corrected by the author (according to ERRATA list):
Title, contents, preface, abbreviations
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The autobiographical thread
Chapter 3: Nifal of 'āśā

Articles and reviews

Isaksson, Bo. “Subordination in biblical Hebrew”. In Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, edited by Geoffrey Khan. Leiden: Brill, (forthcoming 2012).

Isaksson, Bo. "Clause-linking strategies in Standard Biblical Hebrew: Narrative and instructional discourse in Joseph’s speech (Gen 45: 3-15)", paper read at 10. Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 28–30 October 2011. Forthcoming in Journal of Semitic Studies.

Isaksson, Bo. “The textlinguistics of the Suffering Servant: Subordinate structures in Isaiah 52,13-53,12”. In En pāsē grammatikē kai sophiā. Saggi di linguistica ebraica in onore di Alviero Niccacci, ofm, edited by Gregor Geiger and Massimo Pazzini, 173-212. Collana Analecta: Studium Biblicum Franciscanum 78. Jerusalem; Milano: Franciscan Printing Press; Editioni Terra Santa, 2011. OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. Review of Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, vol. I, A-D. Edited by Kees Versteegh (general editor), Mushira Eid, Alaa Elgibali, Manfred Woidich, Andrzej Zaborski (associate editors). Langues et Literatures du Monde Arabe 8 (2009): 148-150. OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. “Dödahavsrullarna översatta till svenska”. In Fest för språken. Föredrag hållna med anledning av Språkvetenskapliga fakultetens tio år i Engelska parken, edited by Gunilla Ransbo, 17-21. Uppsala: Språkvetenskapliga fakulteten, 2009.

Isaksson, Bo. “Circumstantial qualifiers in Qumran Hebrew: Reflections on adjunct expressions in The Manual of Discipline (1QS)”. In Conservatism and innovation in the Hebrew language of the Hellenistic period. Proceedings of a fourth international symposium on the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls & Ben Sira, edited by Jan Joosten and Jean-Sébastien Rey, 79-91. Studies on the texts of the desert of Judah 73. Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2008. OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. “Circumstantial qualifiers in the Arabic dialect of Kinderib (East Turkey)”. In Between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Studies on contemporary Arabic dialects. Proceedings of the 7th AIDA Conference, held in Vienna from 5-9 September 2006, edited by Stephan Procházka and Veronika Ritt-Benmimoun, 251-258. Neue Beihefte zur Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 4. Wien: LIT Verlag, 2008. OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. “Circumstantial qualifiers in Arabic. A comparative Semitic approach to some uses of adjuncts in Classical Arabic based on the story of Ta'abbata Šarrā”. In The Professorship of Semitic Languages at Uppsala University 400 years. Jubilee Volume from a Symposium held at the University Hall, 21-23 September 2005, edited by Bo Isaksson, Mats Eskhult and Gail Ramsay, 145-162. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis: Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 24. Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2007. OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. “The syntax of the narrative discourse in Qohelet”. In The language of Qohelet in its context: Essays in honour of Prof. A. Schoors on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, edited by A. Berlejung and Pierre Van Hecke, 35-46. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 164. Leuven: Peeters, 2007. OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. “Semitic circumstantial qualifiers in the Book of Judges: A pilot study on the infinitive”. Orientalia Suecana 56 (2007): 163-172. OFFPRINT

Eskhult, Mats, and Bo Isaksson. “Frithiof Rundgren: Gigantisk lärdom, humanism och skarpsinne”. Dagens Nyheter, 19 October 2006.

Eskhult, Mats, and Bo Isaksson. “In Memoriam. Frithiof Rundgren (1921–2006)”. Orientalia Suecana 55 (2006): 5-6.

‎‎40 "Med ett symposium i backspegeln." Språkröret oktober 2005.‎

Isaksson, Bo. “Infinitiven som adverbiellt komplement i Domarboken. En komparativ studie”. In Nomen et Nomina. Festskrift till Stig Norin, edited by Kari Syreeni and Anders Gerdmar, 107-118. Svensk Exegetisk Årsbok 70. Uppsala, 2005.

Isaksson, Bo. “Lärostol med aktualitet”. Upsala Nya Tidning, 2005-09-21 (Kultursidan)

Isaksson, Bo. “Aspektläran: Frithiof Rundgren i Uppsala / Aspectology: Frithiof Rundgren in Uppsala”. In Till Österland vill jag fara: Professuren i semitiska språk vid Uppsala universitet 400 år / The Call of the Orient: The Professorship of Semitic languages at Uppsala University 400 years, edited by Hans Nordesjö, 54-59. Uppsala Universitetsbiblioteks Utställningskataloger 44. Uppsala, 2005. OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. “Balansräkning: Predikaren berättar om sin uppgörelse med livet och visheten”. In Kungliga Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala. Årsbok 2004, edited by Conny Svensson, 19-38. Annales Societatis Litterarum Humaniorum Regiae Upsaliensis 2004. Uppsala, 2005. OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. “New linguistic data from the Sason area in Anatolia”. In Linguistic Convergence and Areal Diffusion. Case studies from Iranian, Semitic and Turkic, edited by Éva Ágnes Csató, Bo Isaksson and Carina Jahani, 181-190. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005.

Isaksson, Bo, and Ablahad Lahdo. “Reflections on the linguistic situation in Anatolia and northern Syria from a Semitist's perspective”. In The role of the state in West and Central Asia. Papers read at a conference held at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 14-16 November 2002, edited by Annika Rabo and Bo Utas, 105-114. Transactions of the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul 14. Stockholm: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 2005.

Isaksson, Bo, and Ablahad Lahdo. Review of Arabische Texte aus Kinderib, by O. Jastrow. Orientalia Suecana 54 (2005): 222-223.

Isaksson, Bo, and Håkan Malmberg. “Inrättandet av professuren i semitiska språk och några ord om dess historia / The establishment of the chair of Semitic languages and a few words on its history”. In Till Österland vill jag fara: Professuren i semitiska språk vid Uppsala universitet 400 år / The Call of the Orient: The Professorship of Semitic languages at Uppsala University 400 years, edited by Hans Nordesjö, 4-11. Uppsala Universitetsbiblioteks Utställningskataloger 44. Uppsala, 2005.

Isaksson, Bo. “Den judiska gudstjänstpoesin i ljuset av en handskrift från S:ta Katharinaklostret”. Religion och Bibel 60-61 (2001-2002) (2004): 34-43.

Isaksson, Bo. “Towards a corpus-based syntax of the Arabic language. Review article”. Orientalia Suecana 53 (2004): 165-185.

Isaksson, Bo, and Ablahad Lahdo. Review of Der arabische Dialekt der Khawetna, Part I, Grammatik. Part II, Texte und Glossar, by S. Talay. Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 94 (2004): 343-347.

‎‎Isaksson, Bo. "The Genesis Apocryphon as a textual witness of the Aramaic of Jesus – Reading the latest evidence and a ‎survey of recent research." [Paper read in Istanbul, September 2004] (forthcoming in Transactions of the ‎Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul).‎

Isaksson, Bo. “Sason: New data from a nearly forgotten Arabic minority in Turkey”. In Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe (AÏDA): Fifth Conference Proceedings, Cádiz, September 2002, edited by Ignacio Ferrando and Juan José Sánchez Sandoval, 39-49. Cádiz: Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe, 2003.

Isaksson, Bo. “The notion of diachrony and the modern Arabic dialects”. Orientalia Suecana 51-52 (2002): 211-219.

Isaksson, Bo, and Ablahad Lahdo. “Three border towns between Turkey and Syria: 'Āmūda, Derbēsiyye and Rās al-'Ayn”. In „Sprich doch mit deinen Knechten Aramäisch, wir verstehen es!“ 60 Beiträge zur Semitistik. Festschrift für Otto Jastrow zum 60. Geburtstag, edited by Werner Arnold and Hartmut Bobzin, 311-335. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2002. OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. “Expressions of evidentiality in two Semitic languages: Hebrew and Arabic”. In Evidentials: Turkic, Iranian and Neighbouring Languages, edited by Lars Johanson and Bo Utas, 383-399. Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 24. Berlin - New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2000.

Isaksson, Bo. “Iranian and Turkic influence on border area Arabic dialects. A contact linguistic investigation”. In Proceedings of the Third International Conference of AÏDA – Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe – held in Malta 29 March - 2 April 1998, edited by Manwel Mifsud, 201-206. Malta: Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe, 2000.

Isaksson, Bo. “Report from a research project and in addition a brief account of the dialect of Amuda”. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference of AÏDA – Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe – held in Marrakesh 1-4 April 2000, edited by Abderrahim Youssi, 201-210. Marrakesh: Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe, 2000.

Isaksson, Bo. “The Hebrew manuscript from the ‘The new find’ in the Monastery of St. Catherine: A Jewish Machzor”. Scandinavian Jewish Studies 21 no. 1-2 (2000): 47-58.

Isaksson, Bo. Review of Theologie aus der Peripherie. Die gespaltene Koordination im Biblischen Hebräisch, by A. Michel. Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 94 (1999): 685-691.

Isaksson, Bo. “The non-standard first person singular pronoun in the modern Arabic dialects”. Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 37 (1999): 54-83.

Isaksson, Bo. "Rundgren, Frithiof". In Nationalencyklopedin. 1999‎.

Isaksson, Bo. “‘Aberrant’ usages of introductory wehāyā in the light of text linguistics”. In “Lasset uns Brücken bauen...” Collected communications to the XVth Congress of the International organization for the study of the Old Testament, Cambridge 1995, edited by Klaus-Dietrich Schunck and Matthias Augustin, 9-25. Beiträge zur Erforschung des Alten Testaments und des antiken Judentums 42. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1998.‎ OFFPRINT

Isaksson, Bo. “Comparative Survey of some Central Morphological Traits in the Modern Arabic Dialects”. Uppsala: Dept. of Linguistics and Philology, 1998. Unpublished. AVAILABLE HERE.

Isaksson, Bo. “The Monastery of St. Catherine and the New Find”. In Built on Solid Rock. Studies in honour of Professor Ebbe Egede Knudsen on the occasion of his 65th birthday April 11th 1997, edited by Elie Wardini, 128-140. Instituttet for sammenlignende kulturforskning. Serie B: Skrifter 98. Oslo: Novus, 1997.

Isaksson, Bo. “Andalusien – islam i Europa under 700 år”. In Att förstå Europa – mångfald och sammanhang. Humanistdagarna vid Uppsala universitet 1994, edited by Gunilla Gren-Eklund, 81-92. Uppsala: Uppsala universitet, 1996.

Isaksson, Bo. “Dödahavsrullarna: En översikt över den senare forskningen”. In Qumranlitteraturen: Fynden och forskningsresultaten, edited by Tryggve Kronholm and Birger Olsson, 7-33. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. Konferenser 35. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1996.

Isaksson, Bo. “The separate first person pronoun in the modern Arabic dialects”. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of L’Association Internationale pour la Dialectologie Arabe, held at Trinity Hall in the University of Cambridge, 10-14 September 1995, 75-84. Cambridge: University Publications Centre, 1996.

Isaksson, Bo. “Arabic Dialectology: The State of the Art”. Review of Dialectologia Arabica: A Collection of Articles in Honour of the Sixtieth Birthday of Professor Heikki Palva. Orientalia Suecana 43-44 (1996): 115-132.

Isaksson, Bo, and Eva Riad. “Frithiof Rundgren’s Published Works 1986–1997. A Bibliography in Honour of Professor Frithiof Rundgren on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday the 25 December 1996”. Orientalia Suecana 45-46 (1996): 217-220.

Isaksson, Bo. “The personal morphological space and a notion of distance in Semitic grammar”. Orientalia Suecana 41-42 (1993): 96-105.

Isaksson, Bo. “Att närma sig verkligheten. Några tankar om vishetens väg i det forna Israel”. Religion och Bibel 51 (1992): 35-42.

Isaksson, Bo. “The personal markers in the modern Arabic dialects of the Arabian peninsula”. Orientalia Suecana 40 (1991): 117-145.

Isaksson, Bo. “A response to John G. Gammie’s review of Studies in ‎the Language of Qoheleth”. Hebrew Studies 31 (1990): 275-276.

Isaksson, Bo. Review of The Blessings in the Targums. A Study on the Targumic Interpretations of Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33, by R. Syrén. Svensk Exegetisk Årsbok 55 (1990): 121-123.

Isaksson, Bo. “The position of Ugaritic among the Semitic languages”. In Festskrift till Gösta Vitestam, edited by Tryggve Kronholm, 54-70. Orientalia Suecana 38-39. Uppsala, 1989.

Isaksson, Bo. “Concerning two arguments of H. Bauer for a priority of the so-called imperfect (the ‘Aorist’)”. In On the dignity of man: Oriental and classical studies in honour of Frithiof Rundgren, edited by Tryggve Kronholm and Eva Riad, 181-187. Orientalia Suecana 33-35. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1986.

Isaksson, Bo. "Arameisk grundtext - ett missförstånd?" Svensk Veckotidning, 23 maj 1975.‎

Books

Isaksson, Bo, Heléne Kammensjö and Maria Persson. Circumstantial qualifiers in Semitic: The case of Arabic and Hebrew. Ed.: Bo Isaksson. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, (publication date 12 Aug. 2009).

Isaksson, Bo. "Hind behärskade högspråket..." Textkurs i klassisk arabiska med utgångspunkt i R.-E. Brünnows och A. Fischers "Arabische Chrestomathie". Uppsala: Uppsala universitet, 3rd rev. ed. Uppsala, 2007, ISBN 978-91-506-1912-6).

Isaksson, Bo. Studies in the Language of Qoheleth. With Special Emphasis on the Verbal System. Diss. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Semitica Upsaliensia, 10. Uppsala, 1987.

Recent conference papers

"Clause-linking strategies in Standard Biblical Hebrew: Narrative and instructional discourse in Joseph’s speech (Gen 45: 3-15)", paper read at 10. Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 28–30 October 2011.

“Subordination. Some reflections on Matthiesen and Thompson’s article The structure of discourse and ‘subordination’ and its bearing on the idea of CCC”. Paper read at Workshop on Circumstantial Clause Combining in Semitic Languages, Uppsala March 17-18, 2011.

“The main line of a biblical Hebrew narrative”. Paper read at Workshop on Circumstantial Clause Combining in Semitic Languages, Uppsala March 17-18, 2011.

“A textlinguistic analysis of Psalm 18:1-14”. Paper read at Workshop on Circumstantial Clause Combining in Semitic Languages, Uppsala March 17-18, 2011.

"The textlinguistics of the Suffering Servant: Subordinate structures in Isaiah 52,13–53,12". Paper read at the SBL 2010 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 20-23, 2010.

"Textlingvistiken i stycket om Herrens lidande tjänare: Underordnade satsstrukturer i Jesaja 52:13-53:12". Paper read at Nordiska semitistsymposiet i Kivik, 10-13 August 2010.

“Hebreiskan och arameiskan i Dödahavsrullarna”. Paper read at Symposium om Dödahavsrullarna: Texttolkning och tro mellan Gamla och Nya Testamentet. Sigtunastiftelsen söndag 24 – måndag 25 oktober 2010.

“Circumstantial qualifiers in Arabic and Hebrew: The case of wa-qatala and we-qatal”. Paper read at The 219th Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society, Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 13-16 2009.

“Semitic Circumstantial Qualifiers in the Book of Judges: A pilot study on the infinitive”. Paper read at the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) Congress, Ljubljana July 2007.

“Circumstantial qualifiers in Qumran Hebrew: Reflections on adjunct expressions in The Manual of Discipline ‎‎(1QS).” Paper read at the fourth ‎international symposium on the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls & Ben Sira, Strasbourg 2007.

“Circumstantial qualifiers in the Arabic dialect of Kinderib (East Turkey).” Paper read at the 7th Association International de la Dialectologie Arabe Conference, held in Vienna 5-9 September 2006.

Conferences

Editorships

  1. Member of the editorial board of Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature (Haifa University) from 2011.
  2. Editor of Isaksson, Bo, Heléne Kammensjö and Maria Persson. Circumstantial qualifiers in Semitic: The case of Arabic and Hebrew. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, (publication date 12 Aug. 2009).
  3. Co-editor of The Professorship of Semitic Languages at Uppsala University 400 years: Jubilee Volume from a Symposium held at the University Hall 21-23 September 2005. Ed. by Bo Isaksson, Mats Eskhult, and Gail Ramsay (Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 24). Uppsala, 2007.
  4. Co-editor of Linguistic Convergence and Areal Diffusion. Case studies from Iranian, Semitic and Turkic, edited by É. Á. Csató, B. Isaksson, and C. Jahani. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004.
  5. Co-editor of About the Berbers – History, Language, Culture and Socio-Economic Conditions, edited by Bo Isaksson and Marianne Laanatza. RAAS: Reports on Asian and African studies, 2. Uppsala: Dep. of Linguistics and Philology at Uppsala University, 2004.
  6. Editor of Studia Semitica Upsaliensia. ACTA series of publications at Uppsala University.
  7. Co-editor of Orientalia Suecana. Uppsala. An International Journal of Indological, Iranian, Semitic and Turkic Studies.
  8. Co-editor of RAAS. Reports on Asian and African studies. An ACTA series of publications at Uppsala University.
  9. Editor of Nathan Söderblom-sällskapets årsbok 1994. Religion och Bibel, 53. Uppsala: Nathan Söderblom-sällskapet, 1994.
  10. Editor of Nathan Söderblom-sällskapets årsbok 1995. Tema: Personlig religion. Religion och Bibel, 54. Uppsala:  Nathan Söderblom-sällskapet, 1995.
  11. Editor of Nathan Söderblom-sällskapets årsbok 1996. Tema: Religionen och könsrollerna. Religion och Bibel, 55. Uppsala: Nathan Söderblom-sällskapet, 1996.
  12. Editor of Nathan Söderblom-sällskapets årsbok 1997. Tema: Tolka och förstå. Religiösa världar i hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Religion och Bibel, 56. Uppsala: Nathan Söderblom-sällskapet, 1998.
  13. Co-editor of Religion och Bibel. Nathan Söderblom-sällskapets årsbok 1998. Religion och Bibel, 57. Uppsala: Nathan Söderblom-sällskapet, 1998.

Positions

Teaching profile

I teach all branches of Westsemitic except Ethiopic, but Arabic and Hebrew courses dominate in Uppsala. Examples of courses:

Exams and evaluations