Technology and Grammar

Cal Redmond kuyacal at netscape.net
Fri Aug 16 10:44:34 EDT 2002


Thank you, Carl!  I have of late become tired of extra credibility given 
to studies which were "done by the computer."  I am thinking on a study 
   of word order and emphasis done by Gary Hill, using "computer 
analysis."  I wonder how the computer is able to decide which part of 
the sentence was intended to receive emphasis??  That part, I am sure, 
was done by a person.

For all the computer geeks out there, I love my computer, too.  It works 
better than I do, but I think better than it does.

BTW, and getting back on topic, does anyone know of Hill's study?  I 
have seen a summary, but without the data, I have trouble becoming 
convinced.

Cordially,

Cal Redmond

cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu wrote:

> At 12:51 PM +0000 8/16/02, Mark Wilson wrote:
> 
>>I was rethinking some of the findings by Rod Decker on the
>>use of the Present and Aorist in GMark. It appeared, although
>>I could be wrong, that Rod conducted this research the old
>>fashion way. Which got me thinking in yet another direction.
>>
>>Are there efforts underway, now that most of the Greek literature
>>has been reduced to electronic form, to analyze Greek grammar,
>>syntax, etc.?
>>
>>I suppose as we continue studying Greek for the next several
>>decades, that we will discover more and more grammatical "rules."
>>I would think that we could discover trends and "rules" much quicker
>>if we put some computers to work for us. Does anyone know of a
>>organization or publication that is dedicated to such an undertaking?
>>
> 
> This is, of course, not an answer to the question but an expression of
> opinion about what seems to me to underly the question. Computer technology
> enables us to put theories to the test much more quickly than the
> old-fashioned collection of data by entering instances onto catalog cards,
> but I don't think it alters fundamental research methodology: data are
> gathered, partly in view of a theoretical basis for question-asking; once
> gathered, the data may suggest that the wrong question has been asked or
> that a radically different theory may be more fruitful in data-gathering
> and analysis. But I don't think that we can say computers raise the
> grammatical questions or create theoretical foundations for analysis of the
> data.
> 
> If there is going to be a discussion of this topic, I hope that we can keep
> it reasonably clearly focused upon linguistic approaches to and analysis of
> Biblical Greek grammar rather than upon broader issues of epistemology and
> linguistic theory.
> 


-- 
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