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Campbell: Advances Chapter 1

Posted: August 7th, 2016, 8:56 am
by Paul-Nitz
This thread is for discussing Con Campbell's book, Advances in the Study of Greek (2015) Chapter One:
"A Short History of Greek Studies: The Nineteenth Century to the Present Day"


Campbell gives a brief run-down of major figures in the study of Ancient Greek and/or linguistics.

I've attached a file showing photos of most of the scholars featured.

Re: Campbell: Advances Chapter 1

Posted: August 8th, 2016, 6:04 am
by Stephen Carlson
Thanks for starting threads about this, but I don't have the book. I'm not sure I can contribute much, except on peripheral issues.

Re: Campbell: Advances Chapter 1

Posted: August 12th, 2016, 10:52 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Stephen Carlson wrote:Thanks for starting threads about this, but I don't have the book. I'm not sure I can contribute much, except on peripheral issues.
Now that I have book (thanks!), I feel I can comment a little more.
Paul-Nitz wrote:Campbell gives a brief run-down of major figures in the study of Ancient Greek and/or linguistics.
This chapter feels like a box checking exercise to me. I'm not sure what the point of it except that someone decided that a history of scholarship is desired and that's what we have, but the chapter is too short and the selection is too idiosyncratic to be of much use. From the choice of linguistics, one gets the strong feeling that it was written by an outsider pointing out the linguistics who may be mentioned from time-to-time in the cul-de-sac of New Testament scholarship. Someone working within linguistics would have made a very different selection. So many important people are overlooked. Frankly, I think the book would have better to drop the chapter and use the space for something else.

Re: Campbell: Advances Chapter 1

Posted: August 13th, 2016, 6:35 am
by Paul-Nitz
What significant names in linguistics would we insert into this list?

1822: Georg B. Winer: Wrote the earl y standard book for Greek grammar. WF Moulton translated his work.

1833: Franz Bopp 1791- 1867 († 76): Berlin. Popularized the term “Indo-European”

1846: Georg Curtius 1820-1885 († 65): Berlin, Prague. Verbal aspect studies. Term: Zeitart

1886: Karl Brugmann 1849-1919 († 70): Comparative grammar of Indogermanischen Sprachen (publ 1186-1893). Translated: “Elements of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-Germanic Languages” (5 vol).

1886: Berthold Delbrück: Added 3 volumes on Proto-Indo-European syntax to Brugmann’s work. A radical. Joint editor with Curtius on “The Studies in Greek and Latin Grammar”

1896: Friedrich Blass 1843-1907 († 64): His work translated and expanded by Debrunner & Funk 

1888: William Rainey Harper 1856-1906 († 50): Est. Univ. Chicago. Prodigy. Graduated college at age 14. Hebrew main interest. Wrote “An Inductive Greek Method” and another for Hebrew. Adult education interest - correspondence courses. [Not necessarily a linguist and not mentioned in Campbell’s book, but an interesting figure in the pedagogy of Greek].

1898: Ernest DeWitt Burton 1856-1925 († 69): Chicago. “Exegetical” approach, essentially synchronic and a departure from diachronic, preempting Saussure’s distinction. Agemates with and followed William Harper Rainey as President of the Univ. Chicago.

1895: Adolf Deissmann 1866-1937 († 70): Greek philology. Papyrus work. Debunked “Biblical Greek” idea. Saved archeology at Ephesus. Got involved in church reform.

1901: Albert Thumb 1865-1915 († 50): Worked on Modern Greek, Hellenistic Greek. Followed up on Deissmann’s work.

1904: Jakob Wackernagel 1853-1938 († 85): Basel. Resultative Perfect.

1906: James Hope Moulton 1863-1917 († 54): Methodist. Father at Cambridge. Interest in Zoroastrianism. India missionary. Early contribution to Greek grammar in English. Papyri studies.

1914: A.T. Robertson 1863-1934 († 71): “A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research” Papyri. Comparative method. His grammar is not yet dated.

1916: Ferdinand de Saussure 1857-1913: († 55) Swiss. Major shift from diachronic to synchronic.

1920: Herbert Weir Smyth 1857-1937 († 80): Harvard. A Greek Grammar for Colleges. Enough said!

1926: Vilem Mathesius 1882-1945 († 63): Czek. The Prague School. Charles Univ. Function. Theme/rheme.

1927: Pierre Chantraine 1899-1974 († 75): Perfect aspect as state.

1957: John Rupert Firth 1890-1960 († 70): British. Brought in linguistics as recognized academic discipline. Systemic grammar. The London School

Noam Chomsky b. 1928: Generative.

1961: James Barr 1924-2006 († 82): Scottish. Etymological Fallacy.

1961: M. A. K. Halliday b. 1925: British, Australian. Systemic functional grammar (SFL).

1963: Joseph H. Greenberg 1915-2001 († 85): synchronic linguistics, linguistic universals, functional, not generative. Classification system for African languages.

1967 Kenneth L. Pike 1912-2000 († 88): Summer Institute in Linguistics (SIL). emic / etic, tagmemics

Re: Campbell: Advances Chapter 1

Posted: September 2nd, 2016, 2:16 am
by Adam Balshan
Stephen Carlson wrote:This chapter feels like a box checking exercise to me. I'm not sure what the point of it except that someone decided that a history of scholarship is desired and that's what we have, but the chapter is too short and the selection is too idiosyncratic to be of much use. From the choice of linguistics, one gets the strong feeling that it was written by an outsider pointing out the linguistics who may be mentioned from time-to-time in the cul-de-sac of New Testament scholarship. Someone working within linguistics would have made a very different selection. So many important people are overlooked. Frankly, I think the book would have better to drop the chapter and use the space for something else.
Paul-Nitz wrote:What significant names in linguistics would we insert into this list?
1822: Georg B. Winer, 1833: Franz Bopp, 1846: Georg Curtius, 1886: Karl Brugmann, 1886: Berthold Delbrück, 1896: Friedrich Blass, 1888: William Rainey Harper, 1898: Ernest DeWitt Burton, 1895: Adolf Deissmann, 1901: Albert Thumb, 1904: Jakob Wackernagel, 1906: James Hope Moulton, 1914: A.T. Robertson, 1916: Ferdinand de Saussure, 1920: Herbert Weir Smyth, 1926: Vilem Mathesius, 1927: Pierre Chantraine, 1957: John Rupert Firth, Noam Chomsky, 1961: James Barr, 1961: M. A. K. Halliday, 1963: Joseph H. Greenberg, 1967 Kenneth L. Pike. (Abridgment mine, for space)
Three weeks ago, the thread moderator asked an apt follow-up question (in blue) to Dr. Carlson's comments (in orange).
I would like to second that solicitation for Dr. Carlson's specific reply, or for anyone else who might agree that Campbell's list is lacking. Thank you.

Re: Campbell: Advances Chapter 1

Posted: October 22nd, 2016, 11:52 am
by MAubrey
Adam Balshan wrote:I would like to second that solicitation for Dr. Carlson's specific reply, or for anyone else who might agree that Campbell's list is lacking. Thank you.
One difficulty in making such a list is that the names vary based who you'd want to give the list to and why you're writing it to begin with. Campbell's list feels (I'm not in his head to say if it actually is) ad hoc without much rhyme or reason behind. Names like Firth and Pike are interesting for people who study linguistics and its history, but aren't remotely relevant for someone looking at the intersection of Greek & linguistics. Similarly, Saussure continues to be relevant, but not for the traditional reasons (and the traditional reasons are wrong anyway). Rather Saussure is relevant because of his contributions to the study and reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European. And that puts him in the same camp of relevance as Boop, Blass, and Wackernagel.

Simon Dik should be on the list because of his influence over the Dutch Classicists in the 1980s and 1990s (and those Dutch Classicists should be there, too).

Other names in linguistics that are important (descriptively or theoretically):
Charles Fillmore
Goeffrey Horrocks (both Greek & linguistics)
Ronald Langacker
James Clackson (Greek & historical linguistics)
Winfred Lehmann (Greek & historical linguistics--his intro to Indo-European gives a great history of research)
Oswald Szemerényi (Greek & historical linguistics)
Raimo Antilla
Lyle Campbell
Hans Henrich Hock
Brian D. Joseph (Greek & historical linguistics)
P. H. Matthews (Greek & historical linguistics)
Devine & Stephens (they're a team; Greek generative)

That's off the top of my head. I'm sure other names could be pulled up simply by browsing the table of contents of issues of the Journal of Greek linguistics: http://www.brill.com/journal-greek-linguistics