What a discourse unit can teach us about the relationship between the Mishnah and Tosefta: An examination of the parallelism between the compilations in the halakhic give-and-take conversation

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Abstract

This article presents an examination of the parallelism between the Mishnah and Tosefta in one discourse unit - the halakhic give-and-take conversation. It aims to show that a description of discourse units found in both compilations can contribute to the discussion of the relationship between the two compilations and the status of the Tosefta in regard to Mishnah. In the examined corpus of halakhic give-and-take conversations from the Mishnah and Tosefta from three orders, for only 16 conversations in the Tosefta (14%) was there found a parallel conversation in the Mishnah, and in most cases the parallels are not identical. The structural and linguistic comparison between these 16 parallel conversations showed that the conversations in the Tosefta contain more exchanges as well as more complete exchanges, and that the language in the Tosefta seems less redacted and earlier compared with the language in the parallel conversations in the Mishnah.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)31-54
Number of pages24
JournalBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
Volume86
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 6 Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London.

Keywords

  • Connector
  • Halakhic give-and-take conversation
  • Indefinite form
  • Mishnah
  • Parallelism
  • Personless form
  • Question particle
  • Tosefta

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