Item Detail
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30330
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6
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8
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English
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Is the Book of Mormon a Pseudo-Archaic Text?
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Interpreter : A Journal of Mormon Scripture
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28
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1
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Orem, UT
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The Interpreter Foundation
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177-232
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In recent years the Book of Mormon has been compared to pseudo-biblical texts like Gilbert J. Hunt’s The Late War (1816). Some have found strong linguistic correspondence and declared that there is an authorial relationship. However, comparative linguistic studies performed to date have focused on data with low probative value vis-à-vis the question of authorship. What has been lacking is non-trivial descriptive linguistic analysis that focuses on less contextual and more complex types of data, such as syntax and morphosyntax (grammatical features such as verb agreement and inflection), as well as data less obviously biblical and/or less susceptible to conscious manipulation. Those are the kinds of linguistic studies that have greater probative value in relation to authorship, and that can determine whether Joseph Smith might have been able to produce Book of Mormon grammar. In order to determine whether it is a good match with the form and structure of pseudo-biblical writings, I investigate nearly 10 kinds of syntax and morphosyntax that occur in the Book of Mormon and the King James Bible, comparing their usage with each other and with that of four pseudo-biblical texts. Findings are summarized toward the end of the article, along with some observations on biblical hypercorrection and alternative LDS views on Book of Mormon language.
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A Book of Mormon Bibliography for 2018
Orson Scott Card's 'Artifact or Artifice' : Where It Stands After Twenty-five Years
Personal Relative Pronoun Usage in the Book of Mormon : An Important Authorship Diagnostic
Perspectives on Latter-day Saints Names and Naming: Names, Identity, and Belief
Preserved in Translation : Hebrew and Other Ancient Literary Forms in the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon’s Complex Finite Cause Syntax -
How Joseph Smith's Grammar Differed from Book of Mormon Grammar : Evidence from the 1832 History
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
Mormons and the Bible : The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion
The Book of Mormon : The Earliest Text
The Gift and Power : Translating the Book of Mormon
The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon
The Late War Against the Book of Mormon
'Written in the Style of Antiquity' : Pseudo-Biblicism and the Early American Republic, 1770–1830