From: Joseph A. Weaks (j.weaks@student.tcu.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 25 2001 - 13:19:03 EST
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At 5:44 AM -1000 1/25/01, Mark Beatty wrote:
>In this short essay I question the existance of "basic" Greek word order.
...
>Asking "what is the basic word order" of a Greek sentence cannot yield a
>satisfying answer because the question is flawed. The idea of "basic word
>order" usually presumes that there is one sentence order, (such as SVO or
>VSO) and others are derived from this basic order. This approach usually
>assumes at least a two step method of derivation, 1) creating the "basic,
>unmarked" word order and 2) deriving the "marked" word order from the basic
>word order.
Perhaps the question is best asked with pedagogy in mind. When Philo
was in first grade [sic], how was he taught sentence structure, and
what evidence have we to this? Little Philo must have been taught
elementary syntactical building blocks first. It would seem obvious
that the first block was the verb, and then syntactical feet are
introduced that interact with the verb in various ways. Then again,
the stage (1st grade, 6th grade, or 10th grade) at which writing is
introduced greatly changes the pedagogy.
Second, the "uneconomical" label is biased in this sense of what is
economical. It gives weight to a virtue (laziness?) that is part of
our society but not necessarily in antiquity.
Third, I am convinced that subculture plays a large role in NT word
order. "They talk that way over there." Luke's propensity for
genitive absolutes might be an example of such.
> Through ethnographic
>interviews or contextual study one can find the discourse reasons for
>uneconomical syntax. Finding these reasons for uneconomical syntax can be a
>great help in exegesis.
This is surely true, as long as it keeps in mind the cultural
boundaries. Discourse reasons are not timeless and universal.
Joe Weaks
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Rev. Joseph A. Weaks
+ Pastor, Bethany Christian Church, Dallas
+ Ph.D. Student in Biblical Studies, Brite Divinity
+ j.weaks@student.tcu.edu
+ http://stuwww.tcu.edu/~jweaks/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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