[B-Greek] WEBSITE ADDRESS

Gerry Mishkan at Blueyonder.co.uk
Sun Dec 19 04:16:36 EST 2004


Steven

My mail regarding the efficacy of diagraming seems to have caused you some unecessary concern if the passion of your recent post is anything to go by.
But let me clear up a little misunderstanding first.
My mail was posted to Bgreek by error, it was meant as a personal communication to Ward Powers and I inadverently mailed it to the list; for that I apologise.

My comments as to diagraming being an impediment to real reading of the text is simply this:If one has to stop and diagram a phrase, clause or sentence when reading the GNT in order to gain understanding, then one is impeded, depending on the frequency one has to resort to diagraming, in gaining any reading fluency in the language. 

Diagramming has been presented by some as a method to improve reading skills and fluency in Greek.
My point is, that this is simply not the case.


Diagraming can help us understand the syntax and grammar of a given piece of text and may be found by some to be a very stimulating exercise, but nonetheless I  fail to see how it facilitates the reading and understanding of the text as a whole.
After all, when we read a text in our native language we do not stop to diagram something we do not understand, we simply move on and try to get a handle on the larger context in order to give us some sign as to the meaning of the smaller section we don't understand.
A similar thing happens we read Greek.

Because someone is able to diagram a given  phrase,clause or sentence does not mean that one automatically gains an apprehension of the whole of which these smaller parts belong.
 
The idea that diagraming is a natural way of looking at grammar and syntax may be true, but it not a natural way of reading or learning to read texts.
There is a difference between reading Greek and studying its grammar and syntax.
Just as one may read a piece of text in the vernacular with understanding yet not stop to think about its grammar.


Again, one also needs to look carefully at what type of diagraming is practiced.
One can do word by word line diagraming, or thought flow diagraming or colon diagramming as practiced by Louw .
The first of these,which is usually what most are talking about when they mention diagraming, I think, is the least valuable when it comes to reading larger sections of text.
Often this type can skew differences between form and meaning and fails to provide any or enough semantic context.

Thought flow diagramming is an improvement on the word by word method but can still skew meaning and form.
Colon diagraming, as set out by Louw in his Semantics, has a definite advantage over the others in that it deals with  structural relationships between larger swathes of text and does not just concentrate on surface structure.

I know from personal use that diagramming can indeed have its own rewards, so I am not saying that it isn't useful or at times even necessary, just that it more often than not prevents one from seeing the forest for the trees and is given a much more prominent place than it deserves.

Most of us want to read the text with understanding of its semantic content, but it is not concentration on clause and phrase diagraming that will facilitate this goal.

I don't think anyone has said that a detailed study of grammar and syntax is useless, so there is no need to throw away your advanced Grammars.

Best wishes
Gerry Todd







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