Definitions- help!
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Aug 20 19:24:20 EDT 1999
At 2:03 PM -0700 8/20/99, clayton stirling bartholomew wrote:
>Ed,
>
>Not a big greek but here goes.
>
>As Humpty Dumpty would say, "structuralism" and "post-modern" mean what
>ever I want them to mean.
And this, in my opinion, is precisely the problem. Although the terms may
have some distinct meaning for certain persons, it's often DIFFERENT
meanings for DIFFERENT persons. I rather think that throwing these terms
around in discussions of Greek grammars tends to be an exercise in "damning
with faint praise" or conversely, "recommending with serious reservations."
I don't think it is very helpful to inject these literary and philosophical
value-judgments into a discussion of grammatical reference books or
textbooks UNLESS, when one does so, one states clearly WHY one thinks that
a "structuralist" or "post-modern" characterization of a grammar is a
recommendation for it or a black mark against it. Do we really have to
throw this sort of obscurantist description about willy-nilly?
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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