At 19:33 97/11/07 -0500, Rev Craig Harmon wrote to us, sharing (in two
posts) the results of his work on word-order statistics for Matthew 1-6.
Our thanks, Craig, for this.
Craig writes,
>I won't bore anyone (who doesn't care about such things)
>with a write up of my investigations (it is already verrrrrry
>long), but I have given a summary of my findings. If anyone
>would like to see the gory details, e-mail me and I'll send
>a copy along to you.
Yes, please, Craig - I will be glad to have an email of the details.
Then Randy Leedy raises a number of significant points, in his post of
November 8, about the word order in Hebrews. He refers in particular to
those sentences/clauses in which the writer's word order was more or less
dictated by contextual factors, "weeding [these] out" in order "to focus on
only those clauses where the writer truly 'has a choice' ..." This was a
very thoughtful and helpful contribution.
Three issues stand out for me as being important as we look further into
these matters:
1. Is the subject/object count including or excluding pronouns? (Those who
have been following this thread will perhaps recall that when I put forward
my comments about word order in a typical Greek clause/sentence, I
specifically referred only to nouns, adding that I could see no pattern for
the position of pronoun subjects/objects when used.)
2. Will there turn out to be a diffference between the word order
preferences of different authors? (Only time - and further data - will tell
the answer here.)
3. What special factors can we recognize as affecting word order in
particular circumstances? Randy has identified some of these; I mentioned
another in my earlier post: continuity, where the subject of a given
sentence is a word that has just been used in the previous sentence. There
may be other factors in a context which play a role in influencing the word
order used by a writer of Greek.
Randy also says,
>I think we all know that most NT Greek students' interest
>in the order of words relates to their desire to discern
>meaning in the details of the Greek text.
True: but beyond this is the fact that so many students find Greek word
order just plain confusing, and the guidelines that they are being given in
this matter (in indeed they are being given any at all) differ from one
grammar to another and at best account for only a segment of the total data.
Those of us whose experience of the Greek NT extends beyond our student
years have become more used to handling the word order that we encounter,
but to what extent do we really understand why it is what it is? I am sure
my own conclusions will benefit from further fine tuning - or reassessment!
- through these discussions.
Regards,
Ward
Rev Dr B. Ward Powers Phone (International): 61-2-9799-7501
10 Grosvenor Crescent Phone (Australia): (02) 9799-7501
SUMMER HILL NSW 2130 email: bwpowers@eagles.bbs.net.au
AUSTRALIA.