From: yochanan bitan (ButhFam@compuserve.com)
Date: Wed Dec 15 1999 - 03:21:07 EST
polycarp66 wrote:
>If we are
>to construct sentences which are not simply copies
>of what has been said before, we are limited in our creativity
>by what is attested in the literature.
when a person learns a language they create sentences
that are not copies. some of them will certainly be correct. a peripheral
will be incorrect.
with that comes increased skill and knowledge so that the next round has
more correct
sentences and less peripheral.
it's called language learning. and it beats sitting outside the system and
wiring everything into english. then you know for sure that there will be
permanent structural, institutionalized flaws.
e.g., it's amazing how much about greek aspects unravel themselves when
forced to use them.
one quickly discovers how common the aorist infinitives and imperatives
need to be (and are attested). at the same time one becomes sensitive to
many lexical items that are idiomatically limited or predominant in one
aspect or the other. being forced to use these makes one sensitive in ways
that never become apparent when just sitting "outside".
>If we are to pronounce the language, we can guess; we can even
>extrapolate from current pronunciation. We still don't know for sure.
well, quite a bit of the fine details are only "etic", non meaningful. they
would only be relevant in a time machine where the dialect might not
'chart' quite right. (mais vous-etes d'ou? POQEN ERCHi;? EK POIOU LAOU
EI;?)
on the other hand, there is plenty of data from the roman period that
allows us to talk about an "emic" pronunciation. an emic pronunciation
would keep sounds distinguished that the greeks distinguished and let
sounds "fall together" where the greeks grouped them.
e.g. "EI" was "I" in hellenistic roman times all over the greek world and
certainly in the province of judea.
so guess, use, read, clean up, and use some more. that's how any language
is learned, anyway.
errwsqe
randall buth
--- 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
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:40:49 EDT