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

Alexander Loney alexander.loney at duke.edu
Sat Nov 6 17:22:54 EST 2004


Helma Dik is her name. I have read some of her work and she at least does
take some recourse to statistics. Nevertheless the basic premise of Dr.
Buth, I think, is sound. Numerical prevalence of any pattern is only part of
an analysis of markedness, in word order and in other linguistic phenomena
(such as verb forms... Comrie's Aspect has a good little section on this). 

 

-------------------------------------------------------

Alexander Loney

Duke University

Classical Studies

 

now the ears of my ears are awake and 

now the eyes of my eyes are opened

                                          - e e cummings

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of R Yochanan Bitan
Buth
Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 4:33 PM
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [B-Greek] Fronting for Emphsais in 1 John--theory vs statistics

 

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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