Constituent order

boyd at huxcomm.net boyd at huxcomm.net
Mon Nov 5 05:51:22 EST 2001


After seeing Clay cite Levinsohn's book on discourse features of NT 
Greek several times,** I decided to have my local library get it for 
me through interlibrary loan, which led me to buy the book for 
myself (dating before marriage is a good rule for books).  

I'm still working through the book, but I wondered if others could 
comment on his approach to constituent order.  Is his approach 
generally accepted by linguists, or is he building his whole system 
on questional assumptions?  How do other approaches differ?

For those who don't have his book, he essentially says that if a 
sentence begins with a nonverbal constituent, it will either be a 
"point of departure" or "in focus." (p. 45).  A point of departure 
"provides a starting point for the communication" and "cohesively 
anchors the subsequent clause(s) to something which is already in 
the context (i.e., to something accessible in the hearer's mental 
representation.)." (p. 8).  "The focus of an utterance is that part 
which is intended to make the most important... change in the 
hearer's mental representation." (p. 32 n. 8).

I enjoy discussing books that I'm reading with people, especially 
people who know a lot more than I do.  Any discussion would be 
welcome.

Jonathan Boyd
Huxley, IA

**Stephen H. Levinsohn, _Discourse Features of New Testament 
Greek_, 2d ed. (Dallas: SIL International, 2000).
  



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