[B-Greek] Death by categories
Matthew Williams
kopio at comcast.net
Sat Mar 7 15:05:57 EST 2009
Bert,
This reminds me of my 4th year Greek prof (who was classically
trained). After we came out of 3rd year Greek (which was focused on
Syntax and Exegesis) we were all loaded with the various
"categories". As we were working through different Classical texts
we would ask the prof, "Is this a Dative of Sphere?" to which he
would reply....it's just a dative functioning like a dative! I think
there is a point where the categories become less important.
Sometimes you just simply understand what the language is doing, and
the need for a category is really superfluous. I can imagine my
third year prof cringing as I say this, but when we are speaking our
native languages we don't tend to think, "Did he just use a
possessive genitive, or a partitive genitive?", we just innately
understand what is meant.
--Matt
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 20:04:56 -0500
> From: Bert de Haan <dehaanaf at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Death by categories
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID:
> <5362103d0903061704t648dbe27r13f84066face1cd3 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Mark Lightman <lightmanmark at yahoo.com> wrote
> on?Thu, 5 Mar 2009 19:09:11 -0800 (PST)
>> Subject:?Re: [B-Greek] Death by categories
>
>> I think we are all laughing with, not at, Mounce when
>> he says......
>
> I agree. I want to mention I have appreciation for the tone of Rico's
> post. He is criticizing something Mounce wrote (and he has every
> right to do so) but he does it without attacking the person.
>
>> I know Mounce himself smiles
>> at some of the silly grammatical categories that we come up
>> with (Genitive after Verbs of Forgetting Your Wife's Birthday)
>> but what he is good at is empathizing with those struggling
>> to learn Greek.
>
> That is a major plus in his BBG. He appears to have the autodidact in
> mind. I did not find it hard to stay motivated when I went through
> his book. Staying motivated isn't easy if you are on your own.
>
>> So I look at the notes in Keep's editon and he tells me that
>> this is a "poetical accusative of the goal reached."? Now,
>> this is silly.? You might as well call it the Accusative of
>> Nasal Penetration.? But, somehow, it makes me feel
>> better to know this.? Double accusatives do throw off
>> newbies, and calling it an Accusative of Oath somehow
>> makes us feel better.
>
> Accusative of Nasal Penetration... Almost sound legitimate. :)
> At some point someone would need to know, either by figuring it out on
> his own or by being told, that an oath usually is followed by an
> accusative, ?? ???????? ??, MA APOLLWNA DE, it doesn't have to have a
> name. That said, sometimes a label makes it stick; for instance
> Accusative of time how long and Dative of time when.
>
> Bert de Haan.
>
********************
Matthew T. Williams
kopio at comcast.net
********************
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