From: Jonathan Robie (jonathan.robie@sagus.com)
Date: Wed Jul 28 1999 - 17:48:51 EDT
<x-flowed>At 11:16 AM 7/28/99 -0600, Lawrence May wrote:
> As a computer programmer who deals with words that
>have context free meanings, I could only wish that the
>same would be the same for human languages.
> I like to be sure what the Bible actually says. After
>all it is God's word. He should be able to communicate
>His will accurately to men of good will.
As a computer scientist who specializes in structured representations of
text, I would challenge you to find a propositional representation of the
content of any chapter in the Bible that doesn't lose an awful lot. Human
language conveys meaning not easily captured in logical propositions. For a
book devoted largely to this issue, see Paul Grice's "Studies in the Way of
Words".
The way in which God chose to communicate may say something about what is
important to him, but that's a discussion that belongs somewhere else, not
on B-Greek.
Jonathan
-- Jonathan Robie R&D Fellow, Software AG jonathan.robie@sagus.com--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
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