[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: Robertson's Greek Grammar
I should perhaps qualify my remarks on A.T.Robertson's grmmmar. I am not
surprised that It should have seen service as a booster for small children
at the dining table (along with old copies of Liddell & Scott, Lewis &
Short, etc.). What I said previously was that one could learn an awful lot
about the history of ancient Greek from it, and that is the value which I
personally have most exploited. It may well be true that Blass-Debrunner is
superior at explaining Koine Greek constructions, and that certainly is the
function for which one resorts to a Koine grammar. I guess my praise was
primarily from the perspective of a philologist who finds what to others
might be an inordinate pleasure in the study of unabridged dictionary entries
that trace the metaphoric branchings of root meanings and also in the
Robertson-type explanation of a bit of Greek morphology in terms of what is
known of the historical background of the construct extending back to Homeric
or Indo-European linguistic pre-history. That is why I said that one can learn
an awful lot about the Greek language from Robertson.
CARL W. CONRAD, C25001CC@WUVMD.BITNET OR C25001CC@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU
Classics, Washington University, One Brookings Dr., St. Louis, MO 63130
Phone: (314) 935-4018