[B-Greek] Classroom metalanguage

Jonathan Robie jwrobie at mindspring.com
Mon Feb 22 11:41:14 EST 2010


On 02/19/2010 11:45 AM, Randall Buth wrote:
> 3. Many English grammar terms do not have any meaning in everyday
> English. "Accusative" means nothing in everyday English. It is only an
> otherwise empty, English grammar label, a transcription of a Latin
> accusativus, which itself was a translation of the Greek αἰτιατική.
>    

True enough. But these terms do mean something to anyone who learns 
other languages.

A student of most modern languages knows what Accusative means. My 
German teacher never used the term αἰτιατική.

When I first started using older Greek grammars, one huge and difficult 
task was simply learning the vocabulary and concepts they used for 
grammar, because they are no longer used when teaching most other languages.

Jonathan





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