Learning Ancient Greek (was: Question Concerning Terminology)

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Mon Jan 24 07:59:09 EST 2000


To: Carl W. Conrad,

SCM: << It seems to me (I don't know if others with concur or not) that the 
major task of a beginning student learning Greek is threefold: (a) 
memorizing basic vocabulary, (b) memorizing paradigms, and (c) learning 
basic syntax. >>

CWC: << But as one who has been teaching beginning Greek students for a 
little over forty years, I'm rather bothered by the notion that beginning 
to learn Greek is mastering "these three items." I've known people who 
actually have mastered "these three items" pretty well and still have a 
great deal of difficulty reading idiomatic Greek prose or poetry. I think 
that no less important than these three, perhaps (but I hesitate to say so) 
even more important, is acquisition of an ever more intimate familiarity 
with the IDIOM of Greek. >> (SCM: Other relevant material was deleted, not 
because I'm ignoring what Dr. Conrad wrote, but merely to save space. The 
above should be enough to remind everyone the topic under consideration.)

As you undoubtedly already know, the term "idiom" often has a couple of 
diverse uses. "Idiom" sometimes is used to refer to set phrases in a 
language, then it is also used in a more general sense to refer to the 
various patterns of usage. I assume (and correct me if I'm here mistaken) 
that you were using the term "idiom" to refer to the latter and not the 
former. But it seems to me that often the latter become almost a synonym 
for syntax (for example Moule's "An Idiom Book of NT Greek" and Porter's 
"Idioms of the Greek New Testament"). But I wonder (and perhaps I'm simply 
mistaken) if what you meant might be better described as referring to a 
practical comprehension of the grammaticalness of a Greek sentence. Hmm ... 
I don't know if this really captures the right idea in words. What I mean 
to suggest here is that everyone who uses English at a basic competent 
level has some inner knowledge of what types of sentences are grammatical 
and which are not, even if this person has no real academic knowledge of 
English grammar. Is this the idea which you meant to express by the term 
"idiom," or something else altogether?

-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).




More information about the B-Greek mailing list