Dynamic Syntax

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Matthew Longhorn
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Dynamic Syntax

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

I recently came across Dynamic Syntax in one of my books and have started to read on this / download journal articles and buy books.
Does anyone know of any work applying this to Koine/classical Greek?
It looks interesting as a cross-over with my relevance theory interests. The basic principle as far as I can grasp on the very little reading I have done, is that understanding and producing an utterance is done in a linear fashion as words are produced. The words create expectations for fulfilment with context etc playing in. It can be represented in branching tree structures, interpreted from mother down to daughter nodes with each mother concept producing an expectation of fulfillment through its daughters until the first requirement for a proposition is fulfilled. So the syntax isn't put over a sentence once produced and separated from production / linear understanding.
There are a lot of articles on left-dislocation, ellipsis, but also some on modern Greek issues.

I have probably butchered the above, but hey - always benefit from being corrected ;)
Matthew Longhorn
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Re: Dynamic Syntax

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

I just found something on clitics in the NT

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/St ... CCOUNT.pdf

Don't worry - I am not going to start a Dynamic Syntax resource thread!
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Dynamic Syntax

Post by Stephen Carlson »

I had never heard of Dynamic Syntax before and I’ve heard of a lot of them. It looks really close to generative grammar and formal semantics except that the trees are generated top-left to down-right instead of the opposite order. Personally, I don’t think generative grammar has proved very helpful for understanding Koine Greek and I would expect Dynamic System to be about the same.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Matthew Longhorn
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Re: Dynamic Syntax

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Stephen Carlson wrote: September 18th, 2020, 6:10 pm Personally, I don’t think generative grammar has proved very helpful for understanding Koine Greek and I would expect Dynamic System to be about the same.
I will try to read it with a view to application to Greek from the start, but will (probably obsessively) do so with caution
Stephen Carlson wrote: September 18th, 2020, 6:10 pm It looks really close to generative grammar and formal semantics except that the trees are generated top-left to down-right instead of the opposite order.
I remember spending a really frustrating couple of hours staring at a book with tree structures in it and trying to follow them from the top down. Eventually gave up and learned some time in the future that they are meant to be bottom right up. That would have saved a lot of pain!
Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Dynamic Syntax

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Matthew Longhorn wrote: September 18th, 2020, 8:29 am I recently came across Dynamic Syntax in one of my books and have started to read on this / download journal articles and buy books.
Does anyone know of any work applying this to Koine/classical Greek?
It looks interesting as a cross-over with my relevance theory interests. The basic principle as far as I can grasp on the very little reading I have done, is that understanding and producing an utterance is done in a linear fashion as words are produced. The words create expectations for fulfilment with context etc playing in. It can be represented in branching tree structures, interpreted from mother down to daughter nodes with each mother concept producing an expectation of fulfillment through its daughters until the first requirement for a proposition is fulfilled. So the syntax isn't put over a sentence once produced and separated from production / linear understanding.
There are a lot of articles on left-dislocation, ellipsis, but also some on modern Greek issues.

I have probably butchered the above, but hey - always benefit from being corrected ;)
For all the world, this reminds me of:

https://www.bu.edu/mahoa/hale_art.html
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Matthew Longhorn
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Re: Dynamic Syntax

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Matthew Longhorn wrote: September 19th, 2020, 7:38 am For all the world, this reminds me of:

https://www.bu.edu/mahoa/hale_art.html
Overly verbose?
Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Dynamic Syntax

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Matthew Longhorn wrote: September 19th, 2020, 9:02 am
Matthew Longhorn wrote: September 19th, 2020, 7:38 am For all the world, this reminds me of:

https://www.bu.edu/mahoa/hale_art.html
Overly verbose?
No, if you read his description of how to read Latin, it sounds like he is assuming the same kind of things as you are talking about with "dynamic syntax."
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Matthew Longhorn
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Joined: November 10th, 2017, 2:48 pm
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Re: Dynamic Syntax

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Interesting, I will give it a better read through next week
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Dynamic Syntax

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Barry Hofstetter wrote: September 20th, 2020, 8:03 am For all the world, this reminds me of:

https://www.bu.edu/mahoa/hale_art.html

***

No, if you read his description of how to read Latin, it sounds like he is assuming the same kind of things as you are talking about with "dynamic syntax."
I like the guy's approach a lot because I do think that we should be able to understand the text from left to right, just as the ancients did. That said, not much to do with "dynamic syntax" (or equivalently as much as the old "find the subject then the verb" has to do with modern Chomsky-style syntax).
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
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