[B-Greek] Scientific Greek Interinear Project
Patrick Narkinsky
patrick at narkinsky.com
Thu Feb 5 09:21:40 EST 2004
I suppose my question is, "Why?" What do you see this doing that
currently available interlinears don't?
Patrick Narkinsky
Louisa, VA
--
Patrick Narkinsky - patrick at narkinsky.com
On Feb 4, 2004, at 8:47 PM, Alan Bunning wrote:
> Based on some of the responses I got to my previous post, I thought I
> ought
> to share what it is I have been working on and where it is headed. I
> think
> you may find it interesting (especially if I get to phase 2) and would
> appreciate any comments you have to my questions at the end.
>
> SCIENTIFIC GREEK INTERLINEAR PROJECT - PHASE 1
>
> 1. Obtain accurate copies of the major composite texts by comparing
> currently available copies found on the Internet and conform them to
> one
> standard format:
> - Stephens (1550) (haven't decided if this is useful or not)
> - Scrivener (1894) (and then correct it in a few places to better
> conform
> to KJV because after all, these people claim it is the KJV English
> that is
> inspired not the underlying Greek which was unpublished)
> - Byzantine Majority (1991)
> - Westcott & Hort (1881) (haven't decided if this is useful or not
> since
> we have NA27)
> - Nestle-Aland 26/UBS3 and 27/UBS4 (there are minor difference
> between
> these)
> The differences found between the Internet texts are then resolved with
> printed copies. So far errors have been found in every electronic
> Greek text
> I have analyzed which means that additive works such as parsings and
> Strong's numbers must also be corrected in those places.
>
> 2. Acquire parsings for all these texts and standardize them to one
> format.
> Should more than one parsing be stored if there are disagreements for a
> given word in a text? The same phrases between texts could also be
> compared
> and checked for differences in the parsings.
>
> 3. Create a master word list containing all words/parsing combinations
> from
> all texts. Each word/parsing combination will also be linked to its
> Greek
> root using Strongs numbers with additional numbers created for roots
> not
> contained in Strongs.
>
> 4. Assign one unique English word or phrase to each word/parsing
> combination, trying not to use transliterated words such as angel or
> evangelist. Use the reference links from Strong's to group like word
> sets
> for consistency and Vine's to differentiate shades of meaning from
> related
> concepts. Greek words that carry more than one significant connotation
> will
> have their English meanings separated by slashes, such as
> "word/reason".
> Underscores will be used to keep multiple English words as one unit or
> for
> greater accuracy, such as "[they]_have_been_believing" or
> "brotherly_love"
> vs. "unconditional_love".
>
> 6. Assign one unique English word or phrase to certain Greek phrases
> such as
> idioms. Greek phrase substitutions will occur before individual word
> substitutions when generating the interlinear. May also establish
> syntax
> rules to apply to the translation.
>
> 5. Generate Greek/English interlinear for all the texts showing their
> variant readings.
>
> 6. Make all resources from the project available for free download on
> the
> web (hope to update things on an ongoing basis).
>
> How phase 1 will move the state of the art forward:
> 1. Electronic versions of texts that are more accurate than those
> currently
> found on the Internet (this doesn't mean that they are necessarily
> without
> errors, although the odds are improved).
> 2. An accurate interlinear with consistent word substitutions within a
> given
> text and even consistent word substitutions between texts. This is
> automatically done by the computer without any theological bias other
> than
> the choice of words. If you don't like a word choice, you just change
> it in
> one place and then it is automatically updated everywhere.
> 3. The underlying Greek can be determined from reading the
> interlinear's
> English alone since there is a one to one mapping. This reduces 80% of
> the
> time spent looking up words with the right mood, tense, voice etc. so
> that
> more time can be focused on syntax, structure, and meaning.
> 4. Various texts can be compared and contrasted in a consistent manner
> (even
> in English). This can sort of be done now, but the roots and parsings
> are
> usually not tied together across different texts (this is sort of a
> precursor to phase 2).
> 5. All data will be available in an SQL compliant database such as
> MySQL
> (free), and will also work with Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, or any
> other
> ODBC compliant database. The project will be released as open source
> under
> the GNU Public License free of charge so that others can correct it,
> improve
> it, or change it as desired.
> 6. Someone else (not me) could build a front end to this database and
> make
> an awesome Bible study tool with searching, pop up roots, etc. For
> now, I
> just write SQL queries by hand to find out what I am interested in.
>
> What has been done so far:
> 1. Finished NA26/UBS3 and NA27/UBS4 texts by comparing the differences
> between the Internet texts with my own printed copies. After I
> double-check
> everything, I plan on submitting about 20 errors to CCAT people so
> that they
> can correct their text.
> 2. Working on Scrivener 1894 text. I need a printed copy to verify 27
> inconsistencies found among the texts available on the Internet.
> 3. Created a root table (also in Excel format) complete with Strong's
> and
> Thayer's definitions while finding several errors in the electronic
> versions
> of these. At first glance, it looks like there are about 484 roots to
> add to
> Strong's from the NA27 text (some of these could be spelling
> differences).
> 4. Created several database tables in MySQL and loaded the Root table
> and
> NA27 table with data to verify proof of concept and begin searching for
> anomalies.
> 5. Generated database design (currently under peer review by other
> techies).
>
> SCIENTIFIC GREEK INTERLINEAR PROJECT - PHASE 2 (in a nut shell)
>
> 1. Begin collecting electronic copies of all known texts and variants
> and
> update the previously established tables as necessary.
> 2. Write a program to automatically parse and tie to Strong's numbers
> any
> variant based on database of parsings and roots generated from the
> composite
> texts. I am going to guess that this will take care of about 90% of
> the work
> leaving the rest to be done by hand.
> 2. Create master data structure to hold all variants containing the
> same
> phrases and showing branches for the differences.
> 3. Create equivalence table to equate differences in spelling for the
> same
> word (may put this in phase 1).
> 4. Create textual criticism programs to perform analysis of texts. It
> should
> be possible to create a tree showing which texts were likely copies of
> other
> texts. At this point, the computer could quickly perform many types of
> analysis that was impractical to do by hand.
> 5. Modify interlinear program to generate Greek/English interlinear
> from all
> or even any subset of desired texts showing variant apparatus (might
> also be
> moved up to phase 1).
>
> So here is what I would like to know:
>
> 1. What faulty assumptions am I making?
> 2. What of this work has already been done? (It would be great if
> someone
> has already done word substitutions at the word/parsing level instead
> of the
> root word level.)
> 3. What things should be added?
> 4. What technical barriers will I likely run up against?
> 5. What political barriers might I run up against such as copyrights,
> stepping on other's turf, lacking access to texts, etc?
> 6. Does someone want to sponsor this work or is there someone I should
> join
> with already doing this work. (Someday I would like to obtain a
> graduate
> degree and this could be a good basis for that.)
> 7. Anyone want to help? Although the computer can do an amazing part
> of the
> processing, quite often certain steps have to be checked by hand. I
> myself
> move at a pretty slow speed, yet I can plod.
>
> I would definitely appreciate any input that you have. I have left out
> some
> details, so let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.
>
> Alan Bunning
>
> ---
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