"Someone to Run With"

Lecture by the linguist Miri Bar-Ziv Levy (Hebrew University) is a part of Eshkolot Festival of Jewish Texts and Ideas "War and Peace of Languages: Linguistic History of Jerusalem" (Jerusalem, August 7-10, 2017)

David Grossman’s book "Someone to Run With" (2000) features a colorful, fascinating and dynamic plot while enabling a meaningful gaze into the inner world of the leading characters. In 2006 it was turned into an internationally acclaimed movie.

The lecture by the linguist Miri Bar-Ziv Levy (Hebrew University) examines the representation of the spoken language in "Someone to Run With". In both genres different phenomena of spoken language are represented – in phonetics, morphology, syntax and discourse – and in both of them the language has a major role in shaping the characters and the situation. In the book a wider range of non-standard linguistic morphological and syntactical phenomena are represented, from both sides of the spectrum: super-standard on the one hand and sub-standard on the other. Miri Bar Ziv Levy's research shows that both in the book and in the film spoken language has a major role. However, both media use different aspects of the spoken language – phonetics, morphology, syntax and discourse – to fashion the images and features of characters and situations.

The lecture is scheduled for August 10, 12.30 at Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem (44 King George St.), entrance free.

The lecture will be streamed live on this page.

The talk is in Hebrew with simultaneous Russian translation.

Background reading for the lecture.