[B-Greek] Fronting for Emphsais in 1 John--theory vs statistics

R Yochanan Bitan Buth ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Sat Nov 6 16:32:38 EST 2004


Mishoe EGRAPSEN
> There must be some statistical work done for the GNT
> to determine "default" word order (anyone know of such
> a study?), perhaps by author. This really should not
> be a debatable topic. Statistics should settle this
> one.

 

Actually, in much linguistic theory raw statistics are not used to identify
basic word order. To what may this be compared? Perhaps text criticism will
help some on this list: "manuscripts are weighed, not counted". Similarly
with word orders: the underlying word orders that can explain how
pragmatically and syntactically marked word orders are generated-such
underlying word orders are accepted as the theoretical 'defaults'. Of
course, in a language as fluid as Greek, this is not always easy to extract.


 

The rule of thumb in the previous post does rely on and accept that pre-verb
pieces of a clause are 'fronted'/marked, and is based on several published
'NT' studies. It also reads well, i.e., it provides natural readings that
consistently match contexts. For Herodotus, there is a long book on the
issue from a few years ago by a Ms. Dik. (I don't remember her first name.
Helma?)

 

ERRWSQE

Randall Buth

 

 

Randall Buth, PhD

Director, Biblical Language Center

www.biblicalulpan.org

and Director, Biblical Studies in Israel

Hebrew University, Rothberg International School

ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il

 




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