[B-Greek] Diagramming of Greek Sentences

Barry Hofstetter nebarry at verizon.net
Sat Dec 4 14:51:47 EST 2004


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Suedaleg at aol.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2004 11:01 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Diagramming of Greek Sentences


> Bill Burks, et al
>
>
> Can someone suggest a good book on an easy method to diagram Greek
>> sentences, or to lay them out in logical order so that I can establish the
>> relationships of the words in a Greek sentence
>
> I agre with this suggestion.  It includes a very good explanation of the
> tools and processes.  also a good example in a relatively short book 
> (Colossians).

I am sure these are very good suggestions, but I personally have never been able 
to get into diagramming.  The purpose of diagramming is to demonstrate the 
grammatical relationship of the parts of the sentence one to another.  If one is 
proficient at actually reading the language to the point of understanding, the 
exercise is unnecessary.  I can see it's benefit as a didactic tool for 
beginners, though.

My first Greek professor was a great fan of diagramming, however, and if a 
student would ask him to do so, he would always respond with gusto, animatedly 
using the entire board to do a more complicated sentence.  It got to the point 
where one or two of the meaner students would ask him to do it just because they 
liked to see him jumping around (he rather resembled Woody Allen, actually). 
Since he had a Ph.D., however, he caught on after a while, and politely 
suggested that they could try diagramming the sentences themselves at home, and 
he would be glad to grade them...

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Adjunct Faculty, The Center for Urban Theological Studies
         Philadelphia, PA
http://www.cuts.edu
Adjunct Faculty, Reformed Theological Seminary
         Washington, D.C.
http://www.rts.edu/campuses/washington_dc/index.cfm

And me:
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry/

Opinions expressed by author of this message do not necessarily reflect the 
opinions of the institutions listed above... 




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