[b-greek] Re: Synonyms

From: Steven R. Lo Vullo (doulos@chorus.net)
Date: Sun Jan 07 2001 - 14:44:42 EST


On 1/7/01 10:03 AM, Mark Wilson wrote:

> But, everything changes when I put them together:
>
> I hate baseball, and I despise football.
>
> Here, I have a stronger dislike for football than baseball. But the only
> way to understand that is if they are used in the same context.

Note the following definitions from Merriam-Webster:

despise: 1 : to look down on with contempt or aversion *despised the weak*
2 : to regard as negligible, worthless, or distasteful

hate: 1 a : intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear,
anger, or sense of injury b : extreme dislike or antipathy : LOATHING *had
a great hate of hard work* 2 : an object of hatred

First of all, it seems that "hate" would denote a stronger dislike than
"despise." But the example falls short because the semantic overlap of these
words is not the same as that of AGAPAW/FILEW, as the above definitions
indicate. If in your example above they overlap at that point that makes
them synonymous, then please explain to me why I would understand "despise"
to be stronger dislike than "hate."

> To me, there needs to be a distinction between synonyms
> IN THE SAME CONTEXT and synonyms in DIFFERENT,
> UNRELATED CONTEXTS, as the above English examples suggest.

It seems to me that if you strictly follow this course of action you will
have a lotta 'splainin to do. Let's start with John 21 itself. What
distinction would you make between PROSFAGION (v. 5), ICQUWN (vv. 6, 8, 11),
and OYARION (vv. 9, 10, 13)? (Be careful here.) I would like to hear from
some of the translators out there on how they handle synonyms in the same
context and whether this rule seems to them to be valid.
  
> "I AGAPAW my job" might NOT be distinguished from "I PHILEW my job"
> if used in different contexts. But once they are used in the same context,
> it seems to me that this in itself eliminates the idea of "synonymous."
>
> Now to John 21: Applying this overly simplistic "linguistic" approach, I
> would think that the idea
> of AGAPAW and PHILEW being synonymous would be eliminated since the
> main topic is "love," in fact, more than that, it is about "degrees of
> love."

All of the above assumes what it needs to prove.

Steve Lo Vullo,
Madison, WI

 


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