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Teaching Declensions and Paradigms

Posted: November 23rd, 2015, 1:45 pm
by Alan Patterson
In the section on case endings, Mounce on page 33 suggested you learn the paradigms left to right. I learned my paradigms top to bottom. Which method did you use and why?

Re: Teaching Declensions and Paradigms

Posted: November 23rd, 2015, 9:10 pm
by Stephen Hughes
Alan Patterson wrote:Mounce ... suggested you learn the paradigms left to right. I learned my paradigms top to bottom. Which method did you use and why?
Both.

Top to bottom (all the singulars, then the duals, followed by the plurals) because that's the way all my early teachers presented them - in three ways, viz. sometimes ignoring the vocative, sometimes with the vocative second, sometimes with the genitive second and sometimes with the accusative second.

Left to right (nominative singular compared to nominative plural, etc.) in the context of understanding the historical linguistic changes behind the current forms more readily.

Re: Teaching Declensions and Paradigms

Posted: November 24th, 2015, 9:13 pm
by Shirley Rollinson
Alan Patterson wrote:In the section on case endings, Mounce on page 33 suggested you learn the paradigms left to right. I learned my paradigms top to bottom. Which method did you use and why?
By left to right, does Mounce mean
Nom (sing - Plural), Voc. (sing - Plural), Acc (sing - plural) etc. ???? or Masc-Fem-Neuter ??

I generally teach top to bottom - but when it comes to ἀγαθος I also teach it left to right (M-F-N) - one can work up speed like a train :-)
Shirley Rollinson

Re: Teaching Declensions and Paradigms

Posted: November 25th, 2015, 10:29 am
by Barry Hofstetter
Verbs and nouns (anything that can be two columns singular and plural), get the top down treatment.

Adjectives and pronouns which have three genders (and hence three columns), get the left to right according to gender and move down according to case. That way when you memorize them you keep the genders distinct while grouping the cases together.

This has ancient precedent, It's canonical, and any other way of doing it is heresy punishable by flogging with nerf bats.

Re: Teaching Declensions and Paradigms

Posted: November 26th, 2015, 8:35 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Alan Patterson wrote:In the section on case endings, Mounce on page 33 suggested you learn the paradigms left to right. I learned my paradigms top to bottom. Which method did you use and why?
This question is incomprehensible to those who don't have Mounce in front of them. That said, all my teachers did the singular cases, then the plurals.

Re: Teaching Declensions and Paradigms

Posted: November 30th, 2015, 6:47 pm
by Shirley Rollinson
Barry Hofstetter wrote: . . . and any other way of doing it is heresy punishable by flogging with nerf bats.
Ouch - I prefer 40 lashes with a wet noodle :-)