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Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Keywords

Book of Mormon, Criticism, Authorship, Sources, Translation, Language, D&C, Doctrine and Covenants, Modern Church, Joseph Smith

Abstract

Participle adjuncts in the Book of Mormon are compared with those in the other writings of Joseph Smith and with English in general. Participle adjuncts include present participle phrases, e.g., “having gained the victory over death” (Mosiah 15:8); present participle clauses, e.g., “he having four sons” (Ether 6:20), and a double-subject adjunct construction, known as the coreferential subject construction, where both subjects refer to the same thing, as in “Alma, being the chief judge . . . of the people of Nephi, therefore he went up with the people” (Alma 2:16). The Book of Mormon is unique in the occurrences of extremely long compound adjunct phrases and coreferential subject constructions, indicating that Joseph Smith used a very literal translation style for the Book of Mormon.

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