[B-Greek] Prominence in Greek Narrative

CWestf5155 at aol.com CWestf5155 at aol.com
Sun Jul 25 02:29:52 EDT 2004


In a message dated 7/24/2004 7:28:12 AM Mountain Standard Time, 
nebarry at verizon.net writes:
>
> What textual indicators of prominence should one look for in the Greek of
> the New Testament? I hope that this question is within the parameters for
> this list.

I have no idea.  I think the reason you have received no responses is because
your question is too vague: I for one don't know what you mean...  I mean, it
might be a really good question.  Could you paraphrase a bit and be more
specific?

I actually think this question is quite clear and I understand it.  I gave a 
paper on this very thing at SBL in Atlanta in one of the Greek language and 
linguistics sections--and had an interesting exchange with Levinsohn during 
questions (well, at least it was interesting to the two of us).  

The thing is, the answer is quite detailed. Prominence involves the use of 
devices with which a speaker highlights material to make some part of the text 
stand out.  I like Longacre's description: "zones of turbulence".  In a 
nutshell, in Greek authors created prominence with some combination of a confluence 
of marked grammatical forms, the use of particular conjunctions and particles, 
deixis (temporal, spatial and conceptual), contrast, elaboration, a crowded 
stage, central sentences and/or the use of patterns or repetition. 

Of course, each of these categories need a lot of expanation to mean 
anything, especially markedness, the conjunctions and particles involved and deixis. 
These are all technical linguistic terms as is prominence.

This works with other genres besides narrative also.

Cindy Westfall



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