[B-Greek] Prominence in Greek Narrative

Barry Hofstetter nebarry at verizon.net
Sun Jul 25 07:27:15 EDT 2004


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Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2004 2:29 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Prominence in Greek Narrative


> 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).

Well, it might be clear to someone who recently gave a paper on this subject at
SBL.  :)

> 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.

Ah, mainly what those of us operating from a more literary paradigm (rather than
technical linguistics) would probably call "style..."

> 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.

Quite so, and you are of course correct about the amount of detail necessary to
answer the question, as this varies significantly from author to author, and
even from passage to passage within the same author.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Professor of Theological and Biblical Studies
 The Center for Urban Theological Studies
         Philadelphia, PA
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry/




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