From: Mike Adams (mikadams@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Sat Sep 23 1995 - 21:42:42 EDT
You wrote:
>Just as you haven't seen telic participle before, I haven't heard
>of an accusative of result. I really wonder if a Greek speaker or reader would
>have recognized these words as having a specific grammatical function
>like that. Anyway, thanks for the help.
>
Ken,
I had the privilege of auditing a second year Greek syntax class at a local
college, and one of the students was Greek. She had no problem with translation
or vocabulary, and she immediately spotted all the typos in the textbook. But she
wrestled terribly with the seemingly endless sub-sub-categories of each part of
speech.
As she was growing up in Greek schools, grammar had never been presented such
detail and analysis. In fact, she seemed somewhat offended that foreigners had
become such experts in what was so closely akin to her own mother tongue. These
people, whose pronounciation she deemed butchery, imposed all sorts of titles and
definitions in order to reach conclusions about meanings which she felt were quite
clear all along. It was as if they had infinitely disected and magnified a
tender flower until neither its form nor beauty could be seen.
Analysis ought to enhance understanding, not obscure.
Ellen
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