Progress on Lesson 21 (Aorist Middle/Passive)

I spent some very good time this morning at a coffee shop working on lesson 21. I’m writing the Reading and Translation section now. I’m working against the clock since I have to go back to work on Monday, and I’ll be out of town a good part of the weekend. As soon as I finish the lesson I’ll post a notice here.

Lesson 20: The Middle Voice, The Aorist Middle

Well… After a very long wait, I’ve finally uploaded my lesson on the Aorist Middle. As I have done with a few other lessons, I’ve uploaded it without the automated practice exercises. I hope to finish those over the next few days. For now, I’d love to have your reaction to the discussion and the particular examples I’ve chosen.

Feel free to criticize, suggest revisions, etc.

Lesson 19: Semantic Roles and Voice, The Aorist Passive

I’ve uploaded a slightly revised version of Lesson 19: Semantic Roles and Voice: the Aorist Passive.

The changes are designed to make it clear that what has traditionally been called the Aorist Passive is a set of forms that, while they often suggest a passive interpretation, are not exclusively (or even primarily) passive.

The middle voice will be introduced later, and at that point I will have more to say about Greek voice, and I’ll introduce the notion of transitivity. My goals for this lesson are simply to introduce the notion of the semantic roles AGENT and PATIENT—establishing their independence from specific morphological Case forms—and to introduce the forms traditionally called aorist passive.

I would love to hear from readers about how well you think I have accomplished these goals and about how clearly (or unclearly) I have handled the issue of insuring that students do not equate these forms exclusively with passive voice interpretations.

Lesson 19: Semantic Roles and Voice: the Aorist Passive

Navigation in My Introductory Grammar

I have completed my revisions of the navigation system in my introductory grammar of Hellenistic Greek. The 18 lessons currently available all have a navigation bar at the top and bottom as well as a link to the topical index at the bottom.

It will be quite some time before I am able to complete the grammar, but the lessons that are currently available are 100% free. No adds. No fees. Use them as you please. If you quote them, though, please include the URL in your citation.

Micheal Palmer’s Hellenistic Greek

Online Lexicon

The lexicon accompanying my online Hellenistic Greek Grammar is limited in certain ways because of its purpose. Here’s what I have to say in the introduction to the lexicon:

This brief lexicon is designed to accompany my Introduction to Hellenistic Greek course. It is not intended as a complete dictionary. It does not offer definitions of the Greek words, for example. Instead, it offers example translations, comments on English words derived from a given Greek word, and occasional comments on usage. For serious study of specific Greek texts, you should invest in a more complete lexicon.

The numbers on the left indicate the number of times the accompanying word appears in the Greek New Testament. The numbers on the right indicate the lesson(s) in whose vocabulary list the word appears in this course.

For each word, I give a variety of English glosses (translation hints) that correlate loosely with the variety of meanings that would need to be defined in a more complete work. It is my goal to one day add such definitions, but I simply don’t have the time right now. Perhaps I’ll get started on that next Summer.

What should be in a web-based introductory grammar?

Introductory Greek grammars have been available on the web for some time now, but several are simply web versions of what is available in print, or are the notes of a Greek teacher presenting his or her favorite sequence and wording of what is already available in print.

What should be different about a web based grammar? What would you like to see in a web based grammar that you do not already find in a printed textbook?

I ask these questions for a concrete reason. I would like to add an introductory Greek course to Greek-Language.com. I want to make it a truly native web experience, containing interactive exercises, reading passages, etc. What features would you like to see it include?