[b-greek] Re: Great Divide

From: Brian Swedburg (brian@discoveryhills.org)
Date: Tue Sep 19 2000 - 18:15:43 EDT

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Greetings Clayton and the list,
     Am I correct in recognizing this as a hermeneutical
proposition? Regarding
 specifically, the use of the Greek language, the challenge seems best
met when
 the reader/interpreter can discern whether FLFA or SPA features most
 objectively allow them to grasp the author's intended meaning.
     Even as a little Greeker, I have found times when
paragraph level taxis
 structure or spans (SPA), or grasping the intended semantic of a noun
or
 aspect of a verb (FLFA)  are very objectively definable, and I
have found times
 that demand a certain subjective choice be exercised. The trick seems
to be to
 painstakingly do both SPA and FLFA.
Thoughts
 Brian Swedburg
 Student
clayton stirling bartholomew wrote:
   The recent discussion of Gal. 4:14 has reminded me once
again that there is
   a Great Divide among language aficionados which is constantly
surfacing on
    this list.
   The Great Divide might be characterized as a separation
between those who
    give priority to formal language features and those
who give priority to
    semantic structure. By priority I mean, the place where
do you start your
    investigation of a text. If you work from the bottom 
up (phonology -
    morphology - phrase and clause syntax) you are a formal
language feature
    aficionado (FLFA). If you start out by looking at the
high-level semantic
    structure you are a semantic priority aficionado (SPA).
   A semantic priority aficionado (SPA) assumes that an
author of a text
    starts
    with some semanitc goal and realizes this goal selecting
from a vast pool of
    available formal language elements. For this reason
the SPA will begin the
    investigation of a text with the analysis of the medium
and high level
    semantic structure and will perhaps at some point wander
down to take a
    very
    close look at how the semantic goal of the author was
realized in the low
    level formal language features.
   The formal language feature aficionado (FLFA) starts
out at the bottom and
   attempts to work up through the layers to the semantic
level of the text.
    However, the FLFA often never arrives at his destination
because the
    analysis of the low-level language features becomes
such a preoccupation
    that it becomes an endless quest in and of itself.
The FLFA may not even
    know how to proceed upward beyond the clause level
syntax. The semantic
    structure above the clause level is a relatively unexplored
region for many
    FLFAs.
   It would be a grievous error to consider the methods
of the FLFA and SPA
    as
    just two different ways of doing the same thing. This
is not the case. The
    SPA and FLFA are actually removed by vastly different
sets of
    presuppositions (Great Divide) about the nature of
language.
   One of the side affects of learning an ancient language
is that the student
    spends a great deal of time struggling with formal
language features. For
    this reason alone most NT Greek students become by
default hard core and
    incurable FLFA's. They spend so many hundreds of hours
mastering a
    reasonable subset of the language that they become
inordinately
    preoccupied
    with formal language features for the rest of their
life. This is all
    exacerbated by pedagogy which promotes micro level
analysis over reading.
  
  
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