[B-Greek] Seeking help on the discourse structuring function of the historical present

Siang Nuan Leong faithlsn at hotmail.com
Sun Oct 19 14:37:03 EDT 2003


Dear Scholars,


I need your help and would appreciate it very much if you could enlighten me 
on the following matter:

I am currently writing a ThM thesis "The Structure of Mark in the light of 
historical presents and other structural indicators" and need some guidance 
on the discourse fucntion of historical present, especially on it acting as 
a structural indicator. I have seen from the Markan text that certain kinds 
of historical presents, especially pericope initial (or close to initial) 
historical presents exhibit structuring function.

I am aware that Dr Sephen Levinson has written on the structuring function 
of Historic Presents in the coursebook for SIL "Dsicourse Features of New 
Testament Greek" (1992 edition) but has since then revised certain of his 
position in the matter as reflected in the 2nd edition of the book 
(published in about the year 2000). I am not clear as to what exactly is his 
change in veiwpoint regarding the structuring function of the historic 
present. He seems to focus on the function of the historic present mainly as 
a prominence marker, rather than a discourse structuring marker. Could both 
functions be overlapping each other and thus can co-exist together?

Also, I have been trying very hard to source for the following articles 
related to historic present on-line and am having difficulty. Presently, I 
stay in Singapore. Does any one has any idea on how I get access to these 
articles in the soonest time possible?


Buth, R. 1977. "Mark's Use of the Historical Present." Notes on Translation
65:7-13.

Levinsohn, S. 1977. "Preliminary Observations on the Use of the Historic
Present in Mark." Notes on Translation 65:13-28.

Larsen, I. (1991) "Quotations and Speech Introducers in Narrative Texts."
Notes on Translation Vol. 5 No. 1:55-60

Callow, J. 1984. "The Function of the Historic Present in Mark 1.16-3.6;
4.1-41; 7.1-23; 12.13-34." Selected Technical Articles Related to
Translation 11:9-17.

Boos, D. 1984. "The Historical Present in John's Gospel." Selected Technical
Articles Related to Translation 11:17-24.


I would welcome information on more studies on the discourse function of 
historic present. If you are informed, please share your information with 
me.


I am also interested in a discourse analytical software that can compare the 
correlation between units of texts, i.e. to what degree the untis are 
closely related to each other, perhaps in the form of repeated words. This 
would be helpful in my attempt to validate a proposed structure of Mark and 
its inter-relationship between certain units. If you know of any suitable 
software, please do introduce it to me.


Seeking clarification, resources and help.

Thank you very much.



Siang Nuan
Student, Singapore Bible College

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