[B-Greek] Wallace or Porter?

Ben & Mandy Pehrson ben-mandy_pehrson at sil.org
Sat Aug 27 22:15:07 EDT 2005


Barry,

I agree wholeheartedly.  What the student (especially of Wallace's grammar)
must not do is take a semantic category that is only proposed because of a
rare semantic situation, and then assume that that same semantic category is
available to plug into any place the construction occurs.  One must
understand the broader unaffected meaning of a construction, and be able to
limit the possibilities of that construction is specific contexts.  Wallace
himself is usually careful to point this out in his grammar.  And often he
actually argues against such rare categories that have been suggested in
other grammars, explaining such categories as the influence of the specific
context.

Benjamin Pehrson

-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Barry
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 6:27 AM
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Wallace or Porter?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ben & Mandy Pehrson" <ben-mandy_pehrson at sil.org>
To: "'Michael Ledford'" <mrl9403 at yahoo.com>; <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 2:53 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Wallace or Porter?


Comment below:

> There is no comparison.  Wallace is very useful and user friendly in many
> ways that Porter is not.  Porter also seems a bit scant in places.
Wallace
> is rightly considered an intermediate level grammar, but his approach and
> interaction with recent research means that his grammar sometimes contains
> insights not covered in the older advanced grammars.

> Some people critique Wallace for his 7th distinctive above, saying he is a
> "splitter" of semantic categories.  But overall, I think this is very
> helpful for the student to learn to analyze the sense of the category
under
> question in relation to the multitude of specific contexts it may occur
in.

I agree with everything you've said, Benjamin, with the one proviso that you

list (I've never actually seen anybody else make this criticism, nice to
know 
I'm not the only one).  I particularly noted this with his discussion on the

various uses of the genitive: one sometimes gets the impression that his 
descriptions are due to an especially fertile grammatical imagination.  It
has 
sometimes been amusing to see students pick a category and try to make a 
genitive in a particular text fit that category, particularly as that usage
can 
be used toward supporting a particular theological point.  However, as the 
student becomes better at Greek in general, this becomes less of a problem.

This is really a minor criticism, and I also endorse Wallace for the serious

student.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Adjunct Faculty, The Center for Urban Theological Studies
         Philadelphia, PA
http://www.cuts.edu
Visiting Faculty, Reformed Theological Seminary
         Washington, D.C.
http://www.rts.edu/campuses/washington_dc/index.cfm

And me:
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry/

Opinions expressed by author of this message do not necessarily reflect the 
opinions of the institutions listed above... 

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