[B-Greek] Diagramming of Greek Sentences

Steven Lo Vullo themelios at charter.net
Sat Dec 4 21:56:32 EST 2004


On Dec 4, 2004, at 1:51 PM, Barry Hofstetter wrote:

Barry, I agree with you more often than not, but I strongly disagree 
with you on this one.

> I am sure these are very good suggestions, but I personally have never 
> been able to get into diagramming.

I am an absolute diagramming addict, so allow me to offer the 
perspective of a fanatic...

>   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.

Yes, the purpose of diagramming is primarily to "connect the dots," 
i.e., to indicate the relationships of words, phrases, clauses, etc. 
one to another in a sentence. But I would submit that proficiency at 
reading Greek does not necessarily translate into understanding **all** 
the relationships in a sentence. I'm proficient at reading English, but 
to tell you the truth, if I had to explain the grammar and syntax in 
every detail or be shot, I would be a dead man.

In my opinion, there is nothing more valuable for understanding the 
"nuts and bolts" of grammar and syntax than diagramming the Greek text. 
If you start with the determination that you will not leave a sentence 
until you have accounted for **every** word, you would be surprised at 
how much you cannot readily account for and how much you can learn if 
you follow through with your resolve to account for everything, keeping 
in mind, as was mentioned in an earlier post, that it is the journey, 
not the destination, that is important. Nothing has made me think more 
intensely about syntax or driven me to resource materials (including 
B-Greek) than diagramming. Of course, there will be occasions when you 
will not be able to "connect the dots," such as in cases of 
anacoluthon, but even in these cases diagramming may be helpful in 
determining whether there really is a syntactic disconnect. What I'm 
saying is that diagramming (with the kind of resolve I mentioned above) 
will **force** you to think more intensely about syntax than simply 
reading.

Let me give you one example out of many I could adduce. In Rom 12.3 we 
read the following:

LEGW GAR DIA THS CARITOS THS DOQEISHS MOI PANTI TWi ONTI EN hUMIN MH 
hUPERFRONEIN PAR' hO DEI FRONEIN...

The meaning here is clear enough, and someone proficient at reading 
Greek would no doubt readily make out most of the syntactic 
connections. But how many people, even advanced students, would bother 
to try to understand the syntax of the prepositional phrase PAR' hO? 
It's obviously part of a relative clause, but what is its antecedent 
and to which clause does it belong, that with hUPERFRONEIN or that with 
DEI FRONEIN? The question would probably never occur if you are simply 
reading. Why? Because you understand the meaning clearly enough. But if 
you are diagramming with the resolve I mentioned above, you quickly 
realize that you cannot so easily account for the syntax here. This 
will lead you to dig further in order to understand what is at work. 
You will think hard and consult the relevant resources at your 
disposal. And after some effort you will find that a demonstrative 
pronoun is "concealed" within the relative pronoun in such a way that 
both pronouns stand in the same case and the preposition governing the 
relative pronoun belongs to the (omitted) demonstrative pronoun (see 
BDAG 1.b.alpha, s.v. hOS). [When I say "you" above I do not mean you 
specifically.] So here is what I finally diagrammed:

LEGW GAR DIA THS CARITOS THS DOQEISHS MOI PANTI TWi ONTI EN hUMIN MH 
hUPERFRONEIN PAR' (EKEINO) hO DEI FRONEIN...

I also typed a note next to the text referring to the relevant section 
in BDAG.

Note that it is not so much the finished product that is important 
(though it may later be of help for review), but the process of getting 
there. The finished product brings satisfaction that you have done the 
hard work. And note too that this is not beginner's stuff. I doubt very 
much that a beginning or intermediate student would learn something 
like this. At least I didn't.

Is this just an exercise in minutiae? I suppose it depends on the 
individual whether this is all just trivial. But like I said, I'm a 
fanatic for this sort of thing and find it very interesting and 
rewarding. These "nuts and bolts" fascinate me and diagramming almost 
never fails to stimulate me and reward me with just a little more 
insight into the syntax of NT Greek. Diagramming is the bomb!

Personally, I find it sad that most beginning grammars do not teach 
diagramming and encourage its use as a lifelong discipline. There are 
exceptions, though. I was glad to see that Stevens' grammar teaches it. 
I strongly encourage Greek students at every level to at least try it. 
And for those who don't, I still love ya! :-)
============

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI




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