Puzzled by Lemma

[bradk]

I've been getting deeper into studying the original languages of the Bible. I'm taking Bill Mounce's video course to follow his text book and will soon be receiving his new approach which is simpler though I will want to continue to study Koine in the New Testament fully.

 

That's besides the point. In various places in accordance I encounter the term Lemma. In some case it appears to consist of the citation (lexicon form of the word). By only exposure to the term previously was in mathematical and the two definitions in dictionaries that I have found don't help:

 

1 a subsidiary or intermediate theorem in an argument or proof.

2 a heading indicating the subject or argument of a literary composition, an annotation, or a dictionary entry.

 

I also searched this web site, this forum and Mounce's "Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar" which I have as an e-book.

 

In Accordance documentation I see a lot of use of the term lemma but haven't found the definition. Can someone please help me here? I mentioned Greek, however, if there is an significant difference in the term's use in Hebrew and explanation of that difference would be appreciated. The little I know about Hebrew seems to show a marked difference in word formation, structure, and grammar from Indo-European languages such as Greek and Latin.

 

Thanks,

 

Bruce

[Anon]

bradk,

 

The "lemma" in Accordance is to be understood as the Lexical Form, or in less technical parlance, the dictionary form. The Lemma form is distinguished from the +Root form, which can surface semantically related words, but are not bound by lexical data (e.g. denominatives). These two search features are excellent ways to expand your knowledge of Greek Semantics (especially if you implement the Analysis Results display in considering the various semantic range).

 

As for finding this information in the Accordance Help manual, you can open Accordance. Navigate to Help/Accordance Help. Click on the search icon in the bottom right of the left hand column, and search for Lemma. The very top hit will take to the appropriate page whereby lemma is elaborated upon with regards to Hebrew Searches (the second hit should be Greek Searches).