Baker's examination of interrogative discourse in narrative storytelling, particularly in biblical narratives like the Joseph story, reveals its complexity and varied functions. This technique involves characters posing questions to seek information or elicit responses, serving as a crucial element in advancing the plot and developing character interactions. Interrogative discourse's primary role is information gathering, where characters inquire to understand situations or gather facts. Beyond this, it encompasses rhetorical questions that are less about seeking answers and more about making statements or expressing opinions, often with a subtle or negative connotation. In addition, in the Joseph story, for instance, questions can act as tools for subtle persuasion or convey implicit judgments, demonstrating the nuanced use of language in narrative contexts. Baker points out that such discourse is typically concise, embedded within direct speech, and lacks the complexity of a full discourse profile with mainline (narrative-driving) and off-the-line (background providing) elements. The structure and placement of these questions can significantly influence their role in the narrative. Further, Baker's work ties interrogative discourse to the field of pragmatics, as per Nicolai Winther-Nielsen's insights into modern pragmatics applied to biblical text analysis. This perspective reiterates how questions in narratives can serve broader purposes than mere information solicitation, such as influencing readers and conveying deeper, often unspoken meanings. Besides, Baker's analysis of Genesis 37–50 dives into how lists and poetry are integrated into the larger prose narrative. He distinguishes between the genealogical list in Genesis 46, which provides static, expository information about lineage and relationships, and the poetic segments in Genesis, which exhibit a different kind of textual flow characterized by structural parallelism and textual condensation. Baker aligns with Eep Talstra's view that poetic discourse should be analyzed using general grammatical categories, suggesting that poetry, while choosing different grammatical forms, operates within the same system as prose. Through this study, Baker provides a rich, multifaceted understanding of interrogative discourse in storytelling. Additionally, his analysis of Genesis repeats the distinctive contributions and structural differences of lists and poetry within the narrative framework, offering deep insights into the narrative techniques of biblical texts.
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