Principles of Mood Selection in Psalm 20: A Diachronic Study on Psalm Translations from Old to Late Modern English
Principles of Mood Selection in Psalm 20: A Diachronic Study on Psalm Translations from Old to Late Modern English

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses verbal structures employed in 16 translations of Psalm 20 coming from Old, Middle, Early Modern and Late Modern English periods, spanning over ten centuries, with a view to determining the principles of mood selection in each of the psalter translations and observing any diachronic shifts in this respect. The major finding of the study is that grammatical choices seem to lie at the intersection of language change and the type of translation aimed at by the translators rather than reside in the source text underlying the rendition. The changes in the grammatical structure of the language inevitably surface in the text of the translation unless they are blocked by the overriding principle of formal faithfulness to the original, resulting in such marked choices as adherence to the subjunctive in main clauses in a Late Modern English rendition. The paper is a preliminary step in a larger diachronic study of the subjunctive in English and its findings suggest that it is possible to investigate the change in mood selection also on the basis of linguistic material gathered in biblical translations.

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