Quirk et al., Clauses, and Greek Syntax
Steven Craig Miller
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Sat Feb 5 17:47:55 EST 2000
To: George A. Goolde,
<< Where, may I ask, are we going with this? >>
Maybe not very far, but I've been wondering how one might try to teach
beginning Greek students the difference between the function of word order
in English and Greek. And so I wonder about doing something like the following:
Mary [S] hits [V] the ball [O].
MARIA [S] EPAISE [V] THN SFAIRAN [O].
THN SFAIRAN [O] MARIA [S] EPAISEN [V].
The ball [S] hits [V] Mary [O].
MARIAN [O] EPAISEN [V] hH SFAIRA [S].
hH SFAIRA [S] MARIAN [O] EPAISEN [V].
Also, one might be able to use such terminology in English to Greek written
exercises, so that one might ask (for example) that a student translate
into Greek "Mary hits the ball" with an O + S + V word order.
Another idea is that most prepositional phrases tend to be adverbial. And
yet in most Greek grammars prepositional phrases are treated separately
from adverbs. So I've started wondering about their possible syntactical
relationship.
But as I've said, I've haven't gotten very far in thinking through all of this.
-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
FWIW: I'm neither a clergy-person, nor an academic (and I have no post-grad
degrees).
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