A Fortiori Arguments in Halachic Give-And-Take Conversations in the Mishnah and Tosefta

In halachic give-and-take conversations in the Mishnah and Tosefta, the sages-interlocutors
use the a fortiori (qal-vaxomer) arguments. Following the previous description of
a fortiori arguments that appear in the halachic give-and-take conversations in the
Mishnah (Shemesh-Raiskin 2019, pp. 132–164), this article presents a corresponding
description of those arguments in the Tosefta.
Chapter 2 presents the inventory of arguments in both compilations. In the various
sections of Chapter 3 the discourse features of the arguments are described: elements
that precede the a fortiori arguments (3.1), additions to the a fortiori arguments (3.2),
responses to the arguments (3.3), and additions that appear after the arguments (3.4). In
general, it was found that these elements are used more in the Tosefta than in the Mishnah.
Chapter 4 presents the syntactic patterns of the a fortiori arguments in the halachic
give-and-take conversations in the Mishnah and Tosefta. From the patterns which were
found by Azar (1991) in his article about the a fortiori arguments in the Mishnah, the
most frequent pattern in the arguments in both compilations is אינו + 1מ + אם מה)ו (
2מ-ש + דין) =]) and) what if + S1 + is it not logical + that-S2]), whereas the pattern
:negative (S2) + positive (S1 + if) what) ([= (מה) אם + מ1) חיובי) + מ2) שלילי: לא + יפעל)
no + Yif‘al)]) is frequent only in the Mishnah. Another structure that appears in both
compilations, is used to reject arguments, and is the most frequent of all the structures –
(.pl./sing (you if, No ([= לא, אם אמרת/אמרתם ב+צ"ש1 + ש-מ1 + תאמר/תאמרו ב+צ"ש2 + ש-מ2?
have said in+NP1 + that-S1 + will you (sing./pl.) say in+NP2 + that-S2])