Prepositional Phrases syntax search question

[mgvh]

My first goal is to find all the prepositions in the GNT along with their object. I.e., I'm looking for prepositional phrases. This is something that can be most easily accomplished with the addon syntax module in Accordance. The value of this is that I can then apply highlighting to the results so that the prepositional phrases with the preposition and their object are quickly visible in the text. This is an aspect of the Understanding the Greek New Testament module I'm finishing up that Accordance will be releasing soon. Below is what it looks like with all the other morphological color coding included. The prepositional phrases are in red type with the gray highlighting I've applied.
 

Well, I thought it would be easy... After considerable experimenting, I am getting close to figuring out how to get the results I wanted. (My latest construct file is attached.) I'm still not getting all the results I know I should be getting.

The challenge seems to be with the syntax analysis. As far as I can tell, prepositions are sometimes part of predicate, adjunct, or complement constructions. The objects of the prepositions look to be regularly labeled as complements.

 

The construct file attached looks for prepositional phrases that are part of adjunct phrases, but I don't understand why in Mark 1.2 it does find πρὸ προσώπου σου, but in Mark 1.3 it does not find ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ.

(It does not find ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ in Mark 1.5, because the prepositional phrase is labeled here as a complement phrase subset of a predicate phrase.)

 

So... I'm trying to simplify the search to just look for any PHRASE that has a preposition and a complement, but that crashes Accordance every time. (I've submitted a crash report.)

 

So... can anyone who has the Greek syntax module run such a search?

Or... is there a better way to find prepositional phrases?

PrepostionalPhraseSearch.accord

[Λύχνις Δαν]

The reason it doesn't find ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ is that ἐρήμῳ is an adjective.

 

thx

D

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Hi Mark,

 

  Does this query help you ? It finds Mark 1:3, 4 and 5 and of course many others.

 

  

Thx

D

[mgvh]

The fine folks at Accordance are working today, and they just updated the beta version I'm using... and (almost) no more crashes! (Thank you, @Silas!)

I'll attach a better construct/syntax search here, but some things I've learned...

• You need to search for both Prepositions and ImproperPrepositions
• The object can be a noun, pronoun, or adjective
• By limiting it to noun, pronoun, adjective, you can avoid the infinitive constructions introduced by prepositions.
• I am not including prep phrases where the object is a substantive participle. (I have a different color coding for participles)
• In each instance, when dealing with the "Depth" of the search, I "limit depth to clause boundaries."
• Increasing the depth does increase the number of hits. (But using infinite causes a crash)
• There are some false hits returned, but they look to be quirks of the syntax coding. (E.g., in Matt 1.20, αὐτῷ is listed as hit. There's a bunch like this.)

Again, you need the syntax module to make this work, but give the search a try!

PrepPhrase2.accord

[Λύχνις Δαν]

I had a look at this one also. I am not quite sure why you want to exclude Matt 1:20 ἐν αὐτῇ - looks valid to me.

 

Regarding depth: I am not sure why the depth is so high, but it may perhaps be that you could drop that value, which can often reduce FPs, if you create three separate searches, one for complement phrases, one for adjunct phrases and one for predicates and <OR> them together.

 

Thx

D

[mgvh]

I had a look at this one also. I am not quite sure why you want to exclude Matt 1:20 ἐν αὐτῇ - looks valid to me.

The ἐν αὐτῇ is valid, but it does return the αὐτῷ in κατ᾿ ὄναρ ἐφάνη αὐτῷ λέγων·

 

Hi Mark,

 

  Does this query help you ? It finds Mark 1:3, 4 and 5 and of course many others.

 

PrepPhraseSuggestion.PNG

  

Thx

D

I see that we were posting at the same time... I just ran your search. I left depth at 0 but removed the "limit search to boundary clause."

It also highlights infinitive constructions introduced by a preposition.

 

I'm still learning how these powerful construct searches work...

I don't get as many results, and it doesn't highlight the object of the preposition. (Instead there is a red line that runs through the clause which is helpful in another way.)

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Ok, not paying attention, sorry. I see. Ok so that's a depth, phrase type issue. If you change to a specific phrase type and then set the depth to 1 you can avoid that αὐτῷ.

This would then require doing a complement phrase one and <OR>ing them.

 

Try the attached.

 

Thx

D

PrepPhraseMGVH.accord

[mgvh]

Thanks, Daniel. I  see what you're doing with those searches, but I'm coming up with many more results. As an initial skim, yours misses Matt 1.11: ἐπὶ τῆς μετοικεσίας Βαβυλῶνος.

I'll have to spend more time with syntax strategies, and I don't fully understand the depth command.

Thanks again.

[Robert Holmstedt]

In principle, depth=0 limits the search to the precise structure you've created in the search construct. Increasing the depth allows the search to look for examples 1, 2, etc. hierarchical levels outside/below the structure you've created.

 

Depth=0 is useful if you're trying to match very specific structures (as I often want); depth = 1+ is very useful if you want to cast a wider net and allow for some structural variation (I call these squishy searches; the Oaktree folks call them fuzzy searches). 

 

For what it's worth, the Oaktree programmers deserve the credit for the depth idea; I long advocated for searches to be limited to precise structure. I have come to see the light.

Edited December 28, 2019 by Robert Holmstedt