[B-Greek] Fw: Analytical Greek Lexicon

James Tauber jtauber at jtauber.com
Sat Jan 28 20:50:54 EST 2006


I think there is perhaps a middle ground here made possible by  
technology.

The problem with printed interlinears is the gloss is always there. A  
far better approach would be for the existence of glosses to be  
tailored to the particular stage a reader is at. A complete beginner  
would start off with all the glosses visible but then the glosses  
would start to "drop off" in some graded way. This could be based  
only on the lemma of the word but also its morphology and even syntax.

I'm actually working on a website at the moment that would facilitate  
this kind of thing.

James
--
James Tauber                       http://jtauber.com/
journeyman of some   http://jtauber.com/blog/


On 28/01/2006, at 5:53 PM, Ernest Blum wrote:

> Re "Analytical Greek Lexicon:
>
> Bert de Haan should not be apologetic about investigating  
> unorthodox methods
> to learn to read Greek.
>
> The fact is that he can easily read the 24 books of the Iliad in  
> Greek in
> one month. It's not the kind of reading that the scholars on b- 
> greek do or
> advocate, but it beats Lattimore, I guarantee it.
>
> I would plead with Bert de Haan to go to the internet and find a  
> copy of
> Thomas Clark's interlinear translation of "The Iliad of  
> Homer" (David McKay
> Co., 1952.  He'll never regret it.
>
> Those who denounce interlinear translations, analytical lexicons  
> and other
> "crutches" are confusing writing with reading.  What one sees on "b- 
> greek"
> is Greek viewed from the viewpoint of the writer, not the reader.   
> The fact
> is that a native reader of any language is rarely aware of the  
> gramatical
> substrate of the sentences he is reading.  Why should Bert de Haan  
> have to
> do this for Greek when he doesn't do so for his native language?
>
> The answer is that Greek scholars, beginning with "Perseus" et al,   
> have
> failed to responsibly furnish neophyte readers with the "crutches"  
> that
> every beginner has a right to expect.
>
> The reason: There is an unfortunate and universal theory in  
> academia that
> the only way to read a foreign language is by knowing grammar and  
> memorizing
> a vocabulary list, enabling one to deductively "decipher" those  
> mysterious
> foreign writings.
>
> But all native speakers originally acquire their languages by  
> induction, not
> deduction, and adults can repeat this process through interlinear
> translations.  (Also helpful is a voice-over, vide "The Iliad of  
> Homer"
> tapes, read by Stephen G. Daitz).
>
> Speaking for myself, I have learned to read a dozen languages,  
> including
> Homer and GNT,  through interlinear translations or other  
> "crutches" with
> comprehensive vocabulary lists on each page of text, with the barest
> smattering of grammar.  One then advances to the original text without
> English,  referring to the interlinear text only for increasingly  
> diminished
> difficulties.
>
> Even though this method does not allow me to see the text from the  
> vantage
> point of a native writer or grammarian--and this is certainly  
> necessary  for
> full  language mastery, not to say indispensable for scholars--such a
> vantage point is not at all a factor required for semantic and  
> aesthetic
> understanding.  How could it be when we are totally oblivious to  
> grammar
> when reading our own language?
>
> What Bert de Haan has heard in this (and other interchanges on b- 
> greek) is
> equivalent to having a music  teacher dissuade him from listening to
> Mozart's 41st Symphony before learning how to play the piano and  
> mastering
> music theory.
>
> Ernest Blum
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bert de Haan" <b_dehaan at sympatico.ca>
> To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 8:10 AM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Analytical Greek Lexicon
>
>
>> After re-reading my previous post I thought that it could come  
>> across as
>> rather polemic.
>> It was not intended that way.  My intention in asking these  
>> questions was
> to
>> get an answer, not to ruffle anyones feathers.
>> Bert de Haan.
>>
>>
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