[B-Greek] Is a Phrasal Interlinear a useful idea?

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sun Jun 20 20:45:41 EDT 2010


Hi, Nigel,

In a word, yes.  The tool you have come up with is wonderful and I think it would be
very useful to NT Greek learners.  I think your translation is quite good, and the way 
you have set it up allows one to go from the Greek to the English much more smoothly
than any other interlinears I have seen.  EUGE, KALWS.

As to the general value of interlinears, I will say nothing on this topic because

1.  This was not your question.
2.  This topic has already been discussed once or twice on the list.  Wait, did I
say "once or twice?"  What I meant to say was UP TO AND BEYOND THE POINT OF NAUSEA.
3. Okay, I lied.  An interlinear is essentially what Carl Conrad would call a "peri-language." 
In my humble opinion, any peri-language is much more helpful to those learning Greek than
any "meta-language."  If nothing else, a peri-language is shorter and more directly linked to
the Greek in question.  An interlinear or any peri-language will, in my humble opinion, more
directly lead to fluency than any book ABOUT Greek, for example.  Put another way, an
interlinear or any other peri-language has to do with MEANING, whereas meta-languages have to
do with FORM, and, in my humble opinion, the sooner a student starts to forget about FORM and
focus on MEANING, the better.    Your tool, for example, if it were done with Homer, would in
my humble opinion, be more helpful than any Greek commentary on Homer. 


Another thought that occurs to me is this:  As helpful as USING an interlinear can be, I bet it is even
more helpful to WRITE one, so, if for no other reason, I would encourage you to continue with your
efforts.

 Mark L



FWSFOROS MARKOS




________________________________
From: Nigel Chapman <nigel at chapman.id.au>
To: B Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sun, June 20, 2010 5:09:52 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Is a Phrasal Interlinear a useful idea?

Hi all,

I've been tinkering with the idea of a 'phrasal interlinear' for a while;
translating at the ideas level, while still (like an interlinear), keeping
the words in the same order, to produce a set of glosses.

This can't easily be illustrated in a text email, so here are some I
prepared earlier...

http://jesus.com.au/comment/reference/php+1

(I note that my translation skills may not be the best you'll see; this is
more an illustration than a public service at present.)


BENEFITS

- More contextual and grammatical than a normal interlinear.

- When entered in a computer system, this creates a body of equivalent
expressions, which can be used in quizzes and drills, or to illustrate the
usage of words.

- Easy to read and edit via Wiki-style formatting.


DRAWBACKS

- Still artificial, since you'll often want to move a word more than 5-6
places for a smooth English translation, and glossing doesn't easily
accommodate this. I've considered other syntaxes for marking up arbitrary
word connections, but they add complexity; -- see:

http://jesus.com.au/help/formatting (skim down to 'TRANSLATION')


Q. Are there benefits and drawbacks that I haven't thought of?

Thanks,

-- 
Nigel Chapman, Sydney AU

Home: http://chapman.id.au
Face: http://facebook.com/nigel.chapman
Msgs: nigelchapman-au (Skype)

"When eras die their legacies are left to
strange police." -- Clarence Day
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