Time is not Tense. Time is not Aspect. But both are Temporal
Check out this discussion going on over at ΕΝ ΕΦΕΣΩ.
Biblical Language Center Blog
For those of you interested in following Randall Buth’s work, I have added the Biblical Language Center Blog to the blog roll in the right-hand column here. You can also access it through this link:
Mike Aubrey's review of 2 recent works on Greek Prepositions
Mike Aubrey has now completed his three-part review of two significant works on Greek Prepositions:
- Luraghi, Silvia. On the meaning of prepositions and cases: Semantic roles in Ancient Greek. Studies in language companion series 67. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2003.
- Bortone, Pietro. Greek prepositions from antiquity to the present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
You can read his review here:
Enjoy!
B-Greek Forum
This is a very late notice of an important change to the most used discussion list related to the Greek text of the New Testament. I thought I had mentioned it before, but it appears I have not.
On May 30, 2011 the B-Greek email list became the B-Greek Forum. (Actually, the change just became public on that day. It had been in the works for some time.) If you are not familiar with B-Greek, I suggest you take a look at http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/. The email list began in 1992 and has for the last 18 years been a very active place for discussion of the Greek texts of the New Testament. I was quite active on that list in the late 1990s, but dropped off the list because of the huge volume of email it produced.
The new forum format avoids that problem, allowing you to read what you want, and easily ignore the topics that don’t interest you.
I help moderate the Greek Language and Linguistics topic in the new forum.
Discourse Analysis and Textual Criticism
On June 21, Steve Runge posted a discussion of the placement of the phrase ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου in John 16:23 that can serve as a good example of the usefulness of discourse studies in resolving (or clarifying) difficult textual decisions. NA27 and SBLGNT place the phrase in different locations. Take a look at Steve’s discussion and the comments in response to it if you are interested in this topic.
SBL Greek Langauge and Linguistics Site
On June 30, while I was away at a retreat in the mountains of North Carolina with my daughter, Mike Aubrey announced over at ΕΝ ΕΦΕΣΩ that the Greek Language & Linguistics section of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) has a new website up and running. You can find that site at
http://greeklanguageandlinguistics.wordpress.com/
The site has preliminary abstracts for the papers that will be presented in November.
Here’s what the site says about its purpose:
This site has an informational purpose. While it provides some information from past meetings, it will mainly serve to post announcements about future meetings of the Section at SBL and provide details of the papers to be presented.
This seems to hint that more information on the papers will be forthcoming, but it’s hard to tell.
The Greek Language and Linguistics Section of the SBL holds two sessions at each meeting of the SBL. One is an “Open Session” often presenting papers on a wide variety of topics. The other session is “Thematic,” that is, focused on a single theme. This year’s thematic session will focus on discourse markers. If you are interested in discourse studies and their relation to Linguistics, you will want to read the abstracts for the “Thematic Session.” Follow the link above and scroll down to find them.
Stephen Carlson's Blog
I have added Stephen Carlson’s blog, Hypotyposeis, to the blogs page at Greek-Language.com. While the focus of his blog is Christian origins, he has included significant content of relevance to Greek Linguistics.
Recent Posts on Clitic Placement in Other Blogs
I would like to recommend Stephen Carlson’s recent discussion of clitic placement over at Hypotyposeis. He has posted four discussions of key implications of David Goldstein’s dissertation.
- Clausal Clitic Placement in Classical Greek
- Koine Clitic Placement I: Goldstein vs. Taylor
- Koine Clitic Placement II: Goldstein vs. Levinsohn
- Koine Clitic Placement III: Wackernagel’s Law in the First Century?
A little over a year ago, Mike Aubrey had a good bit to say about clitic placement in the New Testament that is also very worthwhile reading (ΕΝ ΕΦΕΣΩ). If you want a refresher on the data, take a look at these posts in particular:
- The Word Order of Clitic Pronouns
- Pronominal Clitics in Noun Phrases: The Data
- Pronominal Clitics: The Difficult Examples
- Pronominal Clitics Attaching to Topics
- Pronominal Clitics Attaching to Verbs with Focal Constituents
- Constituent Order
I would like to thank both Mike and Stephen for the work they have dedicated to this topic.
Rijksbaron: Syntax and Semantics of the Verb in Classical Greek
On March 1, Mike Aubrey commented about Rijksbaron’s book, “And this is just one book that should be on the shelf of every student of Ancient Greek.” It wasn’t on mine. So I bought a copy.
What a nice overview of the Classical Greek verbal system! I will have more to say about it later, but for now I’d just like to comment that I really like Rijksbaron’s integration of syntax and semantics, his clear discussion of how the semantic content of individual verbs influences the way such issues as verbal aspect play out in given contexts. He is conversant with current theory in both semantics, discourse theory, and syntax. He also has a very solid grasp of more traditional Greek grammar.
I second Mike’s recommendation.
See the book at Barnes and Noble.
Κατάλυμα in Luke 2:7
Check out Stephen Carlson’s article on Κατάλυμα. You can download the article as a PDF file here. He (along with other influential New Testament scholars) argues that κατάλυμα in Luke 2:7 does not refer to an Inn. How does this change our understanding of Luke’s birth story?
Stephen maintains a blog at http://hypotyposeis.org/weblog/.