[B-Greek] An Accessible Brief Introduction to Greek Verbal Aspect
Barry H.
nebarry at verizon.net
Thu May 19 17:27:58 EDT 2011
----- Original Message -----
From: "Randall Buth" <randallbuth at gmail.com>
To: "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 5:18 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] An Accessible Brief Introduction to Greek Verbal Aspect
> >It's not a question at this point about recommending something for the best
> understanding of Greek grammar, but for a basic, accessible introduction to
> the aspect only/Porterite view.>
>
> Fine. Then quote published sources.
> If you want to recommend the article you are free to do so.
> I mentioned the order in which students should be introduced to Porterite
> views--after they have a foundation in Greek and after they know
> some correct metalanguage.
>
> I would ask--does presenting the article encourage students to learn Greek
> and to increase their fluency? Or does it push Greek farther away
> from the students, as something out of reach of ordinary folk?
> Beginning students can be pretty intimidated if they think that their
> teachers don't know how to say
> "I walked to the store"
> EBADISA EIS TO KAPHLEION.
> and are told φλυαρια FLYARIA that they might be saying:
> "I will go to the store."
This is something Moises Silva used to point out, that you don't need to understand the meta-language or the latest linguistic theories to learn a language and to use it correctly (he would point out often that the instincts of people who knew the languages well was often better than their "official" linguistic theories). How many modern speakers of English really think in terms of cognitive grammar or linguistics when using their own language? Now, I'm not at all saying we shouldn't talk about such things – such discussion does have place and value, especially when we are discussing historically synchronic languages (sounds better than "deal languages," now doesn't it?), simply that you can learn to understand ancient Greek and profit from that knowledge, just like the generations before people like Porter ever came on the scene...
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, semper melius Latine sonat...
Classics and Bible Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
(2010 Salvatori Excellence in Education Winner)
V-P of Academic Affairs, TNARS
bhofstetter at tnars.net
http://www.tnars.net
http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry
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