NP references to active participants and story development in ancient Hebrew

Ancient Hebrew is compared with two languages that use a conjunction or pre-verbal particle to signal new developments in a narrative. This comparison shows that Hebrew makes a significantly greater number of full NP references to active participants than the other languages. Typically, languages refer to active participants with NPs when the subject remains the same in two contexts: to mark the beginning of a narrative unit and to highlight a speech or action. Such references are found in Hebrew not only in these contexts, but also in connection with new developments.