Funk's (Notorious) B.I.G. (was: Beginning Greek Grammar)
Mark Wilson
emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Mon Jul 15 22:20:35 EDT 2002
Barbara:
You wrote:
------
>One textbook I tried for a time drove me crazy that way. The author
>had made up the sentences in the exercises (at least in the early
>part of the book). I would translate them very carefully and come up
>with something that didn't make sense in English. Well, that
>couldn't be right, so I'd go back and try again, more carefully. I
>got the same answer, and it still didn't make sense. So back and be
>sure to think about every word, every ending, everything. Still the
>same answer and still it doesn't make sense. So I would give up and
>look at the teacher's book of answers (which I had bought with the
>book for self-study) and find that the right answer was just what I
>had, and it *still* didn't make sense.
------
Then the author, IMHO, accomplished his/her objective: you understood
how to arrange the words, what went with what, what could not go
with what, despite what appeared to be non-sense, and you
stood your ground.... only to realize finally that you really did
learn Greek. Now put that teacher's book away.... you don't need it!
I haven't followed this thread, but one of the best grammar books
I have read is A Beginning-Intermediate Grammar of Hellenistic Greek
by Robert W. Funk. I think the author gets one "thinking" grammar while
at the same time learning it.
Without knowing hardly any vocabulary, I learned that:
The woggles which ugged diggles were ugging woggles.
Just think how easy it becomes when the words make even a little sense!
I also understood that in the sentence...
Woggles ugg diggles
... just which word had to be the verb... without knowing what
woggles or diggles were, or what ugg was for that matter.
Barbara, I really think that the author of the grammar you
reference above should be given much praise for instilling in
you an understanding of grammar and syntax that some never
seem to grasp.
My thoughts,
Mark Wilson
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