[B-Greek] Re: Predicate as topic, word order in Aesop
Elizabeth Kline
kline-dekoning at earthlink.net
Mon Jun 27 00:50:57 EDT 2005
On 6/26/05 5:15 PM, "Chet Creider" <creider at uwo.ca> wrote:
> Randall Buth has written of the importance of distinguishing topic and
> focus and of what he has called marked contextualization. Since I have
> published articles dealing with both of these notions, I agree
> entirely.
Chet,
This point needs to be explained more clearly. Helma Dik speaks of "topic
assignment" as if it were a form of pragmatic marking. Is she navigating a
different stream of FG than Randall Buth and yourself?
Here is her definition of Topic:
"Topic function is assigned to an element that refers to an entity which the
speaker takes to be part of or inferrable from the shared pragmatic
information of speaker and addressee and which the speaker regards as an
appropriate foundation for constructing a message which is relevant to the
subject matter of the discourse."
This definition is adapted from Hannay (1991:141).
How does this definition differ from marked contextualization?
On 6/26/05 5:15 PM, "Chet Creider" <creider at uwo.ca> wrote:
> First a general comment: Aesop and Herodotus were Ionian Greeks who
> lived in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. The Greek
> they wrote or which is attributed to them is both similar to and
> different from NT Greek. In terms of its use of word order, it
> feels different enough to me that I think that any points made with the
> help of it need to be repeated with NT examples
> before they are accepted.
You are right of course. But to launch the discussion we need Helma Dik or
someone else to apply her framework to NT Greek. This is a difficult problem
since the authors of the standard books on NT Greek have for the most part
ignored the framework that Dik is employing in her thesis. Levinshon is an
exception but while reading Dik I regularly consulted Levinshon and found
that they were not tracking together. Just like Buth and Larsen on this list
are not tracking together. When you put two linguists in a room you well get
a half rack (12 bottles) of frameworks. If you put four linguists in a room
you will have chaos first followed by total silence.
Helma Dik has written a book which can be read with benefit by non-technical
students of Greek. It is a place to start. The copy I am using is headed
back to Chicago on Friday so I though it would be good to talk about it
while I had it in hand.
Thanks for the discussion,
Elizabeth Kline
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