What Command Syntax Tells Us About Book of Mormon Authorship

by Stanford Carmack

Overview

The variety of command syntax found in the Book of Mormon is very different from what is seen in the King James Bible. Yet it is sophisticated and principled, evincing Early Modern English linguistic competence. Interestingly, the syntactic match between the 1829 text and a prominent text from the late 15th century is surprisingly good. All the evidence indicates that Joseph Smith would not have produced the structures found in the text using the King James Bible as a model, nor from his own language. The overall usage profile of command syntax seen in the Book of Mormon strongly supports the view that the Lord revealed specific words to Joseph Smith, not simply ideas.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940150112254
Publisher:	Interpreter Foundation
Publication date:	12/21/2014
Series:	Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture , #13
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	42
File size:	204 KB

About the Author

Stanford Carmack has degrees in linguistics and law from Stanford University, and a doctorate in Hispanic Languages and Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the editor of a historical novel on Joseph Smith’s life — Joseph: A Stalwart Witness (Covenant, 2013) — written by the late Cecilia Jensen. He has had research articles published on Georgian verb morphology and object–participle agreement in Old Spanish and Old Catalan. He currently researches Book of Mormon syntax as it relates to Early Modern English and contributes to Royal Skousen’s Book of Mormon critical text project.