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Re: What is a Greek Sentence + Elephants and Bananas



Curious fact: this is the only piece of B-Greek mail that I have received
apart from the daily digest of the day's mail since last Sunday--and I got
this only because--accidentally, I assume--Clayton posted it to ACTS-L
rather than to B-Greek. It's clearly a response to Micheal's last reply to
Clayton, which is the final item in BG-Digest 810.

Hopefully the snafu that is keeping many of us regular subscribers from
receiving mail directly from the list, even if we get the digest, will be
resolved sometime in the near future. My impression from the digests is
that the snafu has had at least some impact on the volume of correspondence
in B-Greek. Of course, I happen to know that Jonathan is off on a business
trip, and that is also a factor in decreased volume! But he'll be back
today and I'm looking forward to seeing both him and Micheal in the
Research Triangle area tomorrow. In the meantime, greetings to "insiders"
from "outer space," i.e., the realm beyond B-Greek.

>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Date:         Thu, 12 Jun 1997 23:13:51 +0000
>Reply-To: Acts and critical issues Discussion Group
>              <ACTS-L@mercury.cc.uottawa.ca>
>Sender: Acts and critical issues Discussion Group
>              <ACTS-L@mercury.cc.uottawa.ca>
>From: Clayton Bartholomew <c.s.bartholomew@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
>Organization: AT&T
>Subject:      Re: What is a Greek Sentence + Elephants and Bananas
>X-To:         acts list <acts-l@mercury.cc.uottawa.ca>
>To: Multiple recipients of list ACTS-L <ACTS-L@mercury.cc.uottawa.ca>
>Status:
>
>Micheal Palmer wrote:
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>{big snip}
>
>Systemic Functional Grammar is only one among many schools of
>thought in modern linguistics. In fact it is so different from most others
>that trying to compare it with more widely used models to decide which is
>'best' is like comparing elephants to bananas.
>
>{big snip}
>
>Still, even within Systemic Functional Grammar, dependent clauses are
>viewed as carrying (performing) particular functions within the
>higher-level clause in which they are included. Porter's definition of the
>clause in the glossary of _Idioms of the Greek New Testament_ allows for
>this. It is not necessary to read it as saying that dependent clauses are
>not part of the clauses which contain them. The definition of 'dependent
>clause' on page 230 does not explicitly say that dependent clauses are part
>of the main clauses which contain them, but it does not rule this out
>either. Whether he sees them as 'part of' the main clause or not, he
>clearly does see them as performing a function within, or in relationship
>to the main clause.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>
>I am very happy to know that I will not have to throw out my working model
>for K. Greek
>clauses. But we are back to square one on K. Greek sentences. I will now
>hazard a wild stab
>at a definition for a Greek sentence that would fit within the framework
>that I think
>Micheal is using:
>
>*A sentence is made up of one or more clauses that are syntactically
>interdependent
>and/or show a high level of semantic coherence.*
>
>The only problem I have with this definition is that it works fairly well
>for paragraphs. The
>reason it works well for paragraphs is that a well written paragraph will
>have a high level
>of semantic coherence and it is made up of clauses.
>
>
>Re: Elephants and Bananas
>
>Is it any wonder that a poor Bible student working on his own is unable to
>sort out all this
>linguistics stuff. I am willing to buy dinner for anyone who can say with
>a straight face that
>they read Stanley E. Porter's PhD. dissertation word for word, cover to
>cover and
>understood it.
>
>Anyway, I thank Micheal Palmer for clarifying things again.
>
>Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
>Three Tree Point
>

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(704) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/