[B-Greek] Stanely Porter on Greek grammars

bgreek at ntresources.com bgreek at ntresources.com
Mon Jan 19 07:48:45 EST 2004


>  With regard to his comments on obscure writing, it seems odd that some
I've read 
> lead me to suppose that Fanning is easier to read and more accessible (to
the mind, 
> that is) than what Porter has written. 

As one who has probably spent as much time grappling with both Fanning and
Porter as anyone else on the list (it was my dissertation work, and I spent
much of 1994-99 in these "trenches" :), I would concur that Fanning is
easier to understand than Porter. (My diss. was a critique/test of Porter's
system--and Buist Fanning was my external examiner. For details, see
<http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/deixis.htm>.) That's for several reasons.

1. Fanning is simply the better writer of the two. Porter is certainly no
slouch, but I'd have to give a slight edge to Buist here. Of course the
typography of their two published dissertations contributes to this
impression: Fanning's was published by Oxford and typeset in Greece (it's a
beautiful piece of typography, though the currently available "print on
demand" editions don't do it justice); Porter's was published by Peter
Lang--which requires authors to submit camera-ready copy--and its obviously
not professionally set (small type with too-tight leading and narrow
margins, and then there are "small print" sections which are even smaller!).

2. Porter's work is much more massive and covers far more "turf," so has far
more material to coordinate and explain.

3. Porter's is much more technical in terms of linguistics than Fanning
(though Fanning is not to be faulted here; he's done his linguistic homework
well--my guess is that this might have as much to do with the respective
diss. advisers as the writers; Fanning has commented on his adviser's
continual "prodding" in some of these areas as he researched and wrote.)

4. Fanning's terminology is more "traditional" that Porter's (this is partly
the reverse of #3) and tries to retain familiar ways of speaking when
possible. Porter has embraced functional-systemic linguistics
wholeheartedly.

5. Related to 3 & 4, one might say that Porter writes as a linguist (though
with a solid NT background), Fanning as a NT scholar (who has done good
research in linguistics).

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Rodney J. Decker, Th.D., Assoc. Professor/NT
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA, USA
URL: www.NTResources.com  
PURL: purl.oclc.org/NT_Resources/
Email: <rdecker> at <NTResources.com>
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