[B-Greek] Death by categories

James Spinti JSpinti at Eisenbrauns.com
Thu Mar 5 11:29:33 EST 2009


A very nice post by Rick Brannon about translation and categories for cases. A short snippet to whet your appetite:

But all of that stymies me. I'm really supposed to know (and recall?) all that hooey before I can translate ὁρκίζω σε τὸν θεόν as "I implore you by God"? The label doesn't help me understand the Greek any better, it gives one shorthand to English it (lemma + parsing/declension + force labels == English translation). Actually, I may even be understanding the Greek less because I'm relying on the label to tell me how to English something instead of actually understanding the Greek itself. Doesn't the occurrence of ορκιζω along with the double accusative (σε + τον θεον) clue me in to something different going on without having to label the blasted thing "accusative of oath"?
--
The whole post is here:
http://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog/2009/03/03/IReallyDontLikeCategories.aspx
Or, TinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/caune9

James

________________________________
James Spinti
Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
Fax: 574-269-6788 


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