Linguistics and Discourse Analysis

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Hi ya,

 

I've been reading a few books on linguistics and DA applied to the GNT. I have noticed that Accordance appears to have no texts in this area, unless I've missed them, and if I have please point them out to me. The ones I've been reading are :

 

Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek

A Survey of Basics Concepts and Applications, David Alan Black.

 

This is a very interesting summary of linguistics and I found it very interesting though I did not find the discourse example (added in the second edition) to be quite what I had hoped for. But I think that there is something there to work with and it provides an interesting contrast to Runge's work below, perhaps. What I really liked in this work was the treatment of morphology treating various phonemes from an aspectual perspective. The phonology material is also very interesting as is the historical sketch of the Greek language.

 

Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament

A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis, Steven E. Runge

 

This I have not finished but its treatment of particles is very interesting. I read this before then pausing to read Black, above, and that rather influenced what I expected to find in Black's work. In fact, it now rather appears that Black's approach is top down, and Runge's could in contrast be said to be bottom up, though those are very rough descriptions and of course Black's DA piece is one chapter as a worked example, and Runge's is a full volume. Comparison aside, Runge's book is really good in its explanation of inter-sentence connections. And there are many examples throughout.

I realise this title might be tricky to license (given it's owned by Lexham) but I don't know that it would be impossible.

 

Discourse Studies and Biblical Interpretation

A Festschrift in Honor of Stephen H. Levinsohn, edited by Steven Runge

 

Again this could be tricky to license and might be of limited interested. The articles are interesting - those I've read. I hope to read more of this soon but ....

Discourse Features of New Testament Greek

A Coursebook on the Information Structure of New Testament Greek, Stephen H. Levinsohn

 

This is published by SIL.

Levinsohn does not claim exhaustive treatment but its extensive enough looking at it. He works up to boundary features in his final part, whereas Black's work appears to begin there. To me, a top down approach only seems possible once you have read the text and understood it to a large degree. Thus Levinsohn's approach might well bridge the gap between Runge and Black here.

 

Anyhow, I'm no linguist and I've not yet fully absorbed the content of the these books, but they all have something to offer.

I'm sure there are other works to consider.

 

My basic interest here is to raise the question of Accordance providing works of this type. Of the works above I think Runge's Discourse Grammar, and Levinsohn's book would benefit from the search capabilities in Accordance, as they can be used in the manner of references.

 

Finally before wearing out my welcome, I am interested in knowing if Oaktree has any plans to pursue any project in discourse tagging of the Greek or Hebrew texts, like those offered by Logos.

 

Any other suggestions, comments ?

 

Thx

D

[Λύχνις Δαν]

To the above I would add I think J.P Louw, Semantics of New Testament Greek. This is only 160 pages, but it's dense material and not perhaps the easiest reading. And while there a things I would argue with in spots, there is a very great deal in it. It is easy to see how Louw ended up co-producing the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains as a good deal of text is devoted to the meaning of words, the distinction between glosses and definitions, and arguments against incautious or inappropriate use of etymology. But he really hits his stride with his final, and largest chapter, some 60+ pages, Semantics is More Than the Meaning of Sentences. This section explains and develops colon based analysis stretches of text, of increasing size and complexity, by example. The technique and diagrams remind me strongly of the Mounce's phrasing technique but more formally developed and presented.

 

Worth a read certainly and one could readily imagine working through the examples side by side in Accordance, or even using the diagramming tool to produce the diagrams.

 

Thx

D

Edited October 11, 2014 by Daniel Semler

[jeff.mellema]

I second this. Would love to see these discourse grammar resources in Accordance.

[Alistair]

I have found a document,

 

Analyzing Discourse: A Manual of Basic Concepts

Robert A. Dooley and Stephen H. Levinsohn both of

SIL International and University of North Dakota

 

You can get it here:

 

http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Analyzing%20Discourse%20-%20A%20Manual%20of%20Basic%20Concepts.pdf

 

HTH

[Alistair]

See also

 

JETS 39/2 (June 1996) 223–240

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS NEW TESTAMENT HERMENEUTIC: A RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE APPRAISAL by JEFFREY T. REED*

 

(sorry for all caps)

 

www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/39/39-2/39-2-pp223-240_JETS.pdf

 

HTH

[cralford]

We are reading Runge's work in second year Greek this semester and will use Levinsohn's work in the fall. I imagine it is unlikely to be able to get an Accordance version of Runge's DA tagged NT. But maybe a video on how to use the diagramming tool to accomplish something similar. Perhaps there is a way we could share these diagrams in some way. 

 

This is a related work for Hebrew. 

 

Moshavi, A. Mosak. Word Order in the Biblical Hebrew Finite Clause: A Syntactic and Pragmatic Analysis of Preposing. Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 4. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2010.

 

Thought I would post just to show that there is interest in this. 

[A.D. Riddle]

How about this work?

Discourse Analysis of the New Testament Writings, ed. Todd A Scacewater (Fontes, 2020).

https://www.fontespress.com/product/discourse-analysis-of-the-new-testament-writings/

 

A.D.

 

[Λύχνις Δαν]

1 hour ago, A.D. Riddle said:

How about this work?

Discourse Analysis of the New Testament Writings, ed. Todd A Scacewater (Fontes, 2020).

https://www.fontespress.com/product/discourse-analysis-of-the-new-testament-writings/

 

A.D.

 

Looks like a really interesting book.

 

Thx

D

[Cole Heiserman]

Runge, Steven E. Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis.

Definitely needed.

[Drewster]

I, too, have an interest in having Accordance enable or provide some sort of Discourse Analysis support. The Runge resources in Logos look quite useful.

[Dan Dennison]

Have a look at Anderson-Forbes for Hebrew discourse tagging:

https://www.accordancebible.com/product/biblical-hebrew-grammar-visualized-andersen-forbes/

 

You can search with construct searches or with the search bar using tags like [DISCOURSE] or [DISCOURSE-RDY] using the MT-AFD module:

https://www.accordancebible.com/understanding-syntax/