Saturday, April 01, 2023

Words of the Month (April 2023)

1. Lexicology (etymology is late Greek and French)-"Lexicology is the study of the meaningful information conveyed by words" (James Price, An Exegetical and Expository Syntax of Biblical Hebrew, page 1).

Merriam-Webster offers this definition: "a branch of linguistics concerned with the signification and application of words."

2. Syntax-"Syntax is the study of the meaningful information conveyed by the sequential order in which the words of a text are arranged" (James Price, An Exegetical and Expository Syntax, page 1).

For extended definitions of "syntax," see https://www.dictionary.com/browse/syntax

Collins Dictionary: "Syntax is the ways that words can be put together, or are put together, in order to make sentences."

3. νοῦς (Greek)-"mind, reason, intellect." See 1 Corinthians 2:16; 14:14-15, 19; Philippians 4:7; Colossians 2:18; Revelation 13:18; 17:9.

Marvin Vincent has this note in his Philippians and Philemon Commentary (ICC):

Νος is the reflective intelligence; in Paul, mostly as related to ethical and spiritual matters. It is the organ of the natural moral consciousness and knowledge of God (Rom 1:20, Rom 1:28, Rom 1:7:23). It is related to πνεμα as the faculty to the efficient power. Until renewed by the divine πνεμα, it cannot exercise right moral judgment (Rom 12:2); and although it may theoretically approve what is good, it cannot conform the practice of the life to its theory (Rom 7:25). It is this which is incapable of dealing with the painful and menacing facts of life in such a way as to afford rest.

7 comments:

Duncan said...

DILLER, A. V. N., & KHANITTANAN, W. (2004). Syntatic Enquiry as a Cultura Activity. Ethnosyntax, 31–51. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266500.003.0002
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266500.003.0002

Duncan said...

Compositional syntax from cultural transmission
Henry Brighton 1
Affiliations expand
PMID: 12020420 DOI: 10.1162/106454602753694756

Duncan said...

https://www.proquest.com/openview/35949205792a278fe82f51970ec64c83/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Edgar Foster said...

Thanks Duncan. Here are some books about syntax: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/syntax

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009658268

Anonymous said...

speaking of syntax - isnt Greek one of those languages where the words can go in almost any order?
We figure out the intended meaning by looking at word endings and forms i.e John 3:16 the accu ton kosmon is obviously the object of the verb rendered "loved"

Similar to this-
“In Greek the verb is often ommitted as unnecassary. There are are other elements in a Greek sentence that allow this, such as noun cases, that usually allow the sentence to be understood even without a simple verb like “is”. When we translate from Greek into English however we supply the implied verb [because it is expected in the English language]”
(Truth in translation - Jason Beduhn - page: 97)

I believe Beduhn makes a similar statement somewhere else in his book

Edgar Foster said...

Greek syntax is complicated, but I'm going to quote a reliable website and provide the link:

Now that you have learned some nouns and verbs, you are ready to begin reading sentences in Greek. Note that in English sentences, the form of a word hardly ever reveals its function in a sentence. Rather, English relies upon WORD ORDER to determine the function of a given word in a sentence. As a result, The cat chases the dog expresses something rather different than The dog chases the cat.

In Greek, it is not word order, but the INFLECTION OF ENDINGS that determine a noun’s function in a sentence. In other words, if a noun is in the NOMINATIVE case because it serves as the subject of a verb, it remains the subject of the verb no matter where it is placed in the sentence. Though there are some constraints on Greek word order, for now it is good to expect the unexpected.

See https://pressbooks.pub/ancientgreek/chapter/8/

Duncan said...

https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/greek-word-order-and-nuance-eph-28-9-mondays-with-mounce