Greek word study

Christian Alexander

I am doing a Greek word study on Ἰουδαῖος. I saw a peculair instance of multiple words under the search. Why is there multiple of the same word Ἰουδαῖος in the Bible Word Study? 

MJ. Smith

Is "go" as a Japanese board game the same word as "go" as start the race?  These are words that I call homographs/heteronyms. These separate lemmas are often distinguished by a sense number in a lexicon.

Christian Alexander

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1288128#Comment_1288128

I do not understand. Are these all different terms with the same Greek spelling? I want to find all uses of the term in the New Testament. How can I do that? In Louw and Nida I only see one sense number. Why is that? 

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1288129#Comment_1288129

Just as in English, different lexicons/dictionaries have their own standards for determining the lemmas and senses. (Lemmas are the headwords of the lexicon/dictionary.) So, one needs to identify the lexicons that use the alternate lemmas (I simply use a hover/mouse-over) and determine why that lexicon chooses the lemma it uses. And, if a lexicon offers multiple senses, determine why that is the practice of that lexicon. I am not proficient in Greek nor am I truly familiar with the practices of the Greek lexicons. This is the sort of thing one learns by practice - 2nd and 3rd years of a language I would guess.

In this particular case, I suspect there is a single word with a single sense with differences in the lemma form in different lexicons. In which case, I would call these orthographic variants of the lemma. I would also suspect that the interlinears use a single form of the lemma. But you'll need to come to your own conclusions.

Christian Alexander

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1288155#Comment_1288155

That is correct about the way English dictionaries deal with Lemmas. I have taken a class on Lemmas in Context, Second Language Acquisition, Language and Globalization, English Semantics, one on psychology of language and another on Evolution of the Human Language Capacity. These were part of my Graduate certificate in Language Studies. Sense is not something I learned in Greek classes. I took 7 of those classes at 3 different institutions. In my classes I had to use print formations and data sets outside of Logos. I know data within the lexical entry may not be valid for all linking to that lexical entry and if the lemma only identifies the lexical entry as a whole, there’s no way to discern which specific properties apply in each case. I do not know how that works within general linguistics. I did a study similar to this for biblical Greek. Gorman, V. B. 2020 Dependency Treebanks of Ancient Greek Prose. Journal of Open Humanities Data 6: 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.13 in my class. I have noticed Logos Bible Software includes the root words for Greek lemmas in English Bibles with the reverse interlinear. I do not understand how there is a single word with a single sense with differences in the lemma form in different lexicons. The goal of lemmatization is to reduce a word to its root form, also called a lemma. I do not understand how that happened in biblical Greek texts. I also am not 100% familiar with the practices of the Greek lexicons. I have used a lexicon to determine what the term means. Any advice? 

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1288412#Comment_1288412

The goal of lemmatization is to reduce a word to its root form, also called a lemma.

Nope. A lemma is a dictionary headword - nothing more and nothing less. The definition of the lemma is up to the lexicographer in charge of/editing a particular dictionary or lexicon.

[quote]In morphology and lexicography (the study of word forms and dictionaries):

• A lemma refers to the canonical form, dictionary form, or citation form of a group of related word forms.
• For example, in English, "break," "breaks," "broke," "broken," and "breaking" are all forms of the same lemma, which is simply "break."
• This is the form you would typically find listed in a dictionary.
• Lemmas are particularly important in languages with complex inflection systems, such as Arabic, Turkish, and Russian.

You appear to have lemma, root, and stem definitions blurred. I omit "word" because there is no standard understanding of what a word is; for this reason, computational linguistics speaks of tokens rather than words. 

[quote]

Root:

• The core, unalterable part of a word that carries its basic meaning.
• It cannot be further analyzed into smaller meaningful units within the same language.
• Roots are often of historical origin, coming from older languages and sometimes having different meanings in their original form.
• Examples:
  • "scrib" (meaning "write") in the word "scribe"
  • "dict" (meaning "say, speak") in the word "dictate"

Stem:

• The base form of a word to which inflectional affixes (such as tense markers, plurals, etc.) are attached.
• It is the part of the word that remains after removing inflectional but not derivational affixes.
• Unlike roots, stems can sometimes be further analyzed into meaningful parts.
• Examples:
• "play" is the stem of the words "play," "played," "playing" (inflections for tense)
• "work" is the stem of the words "work," "worked," "working" (inflections for tense)
• "unhappy" is the stem of the word "unhappiest" (inflection for superlative)

Sense is something I was taught in grade school with "go" as the example. I was educated in a 3 room 8 grade schoolhouse that thoroughly grilled us in the basics, something I have learned to appreciate more and more over time.

[quote]Sense refers to one of the distinct meanings a word can have.

Imagine a word as a tree with multiple branches. Each branch represents a different sense of the word, which carries a distinct meaning within a specific context.

For instance, the word "bat" has several distinct senses:

• A flying mammal: This is the most common sense, referring to the nocturnal creature with wings.
• A wooden club: Used in sports like baseball or cricket.
• To hit repeatedly: As in "batting down the hatches" or "batting away the flies."

And just in case, do you know the difference between a dictionary and a lexicon?

[quote]

The terms "dictionary" and "lexicon" are often used interchangeably, and their precise distinction can be subtle and sometimes even debated within linguistics. However, there are a few key points to consider:

Similarities:

• Both are reference tools that list words along with information about them.
• Both are typically arranged alphabetically with definitions and often additional details like pronunciation, part of speech, and usage examples.

Differences:

• Scope: Dictionaries tend to have a broader scope, covering a wide range of words from general vocabulary to specialized fields. Lexicons, on the other hand, can be more specific in their focus, targeting a particular language, field of study, or even the vocabulary of an individual author.
• Depth of information: Dictionaries typically offer more information about each word, including definitions, pronunciations, usage examples, synonyms, antonyms, and etymological information. Lexicons might be more concise, focusing primarily on definitions and basic information.
• Historical usage: Traditionally, "lexicon" was used more for ancient languages like Greek or Latin, while "dictionary" referred to modern languages. However, this distinction has become less relevant in modern usage.

The terms "dictionary" and "lexicon" are often used interchangeably, and their precise distinction can be subtle and sometimes even debated within linguistics. However, there are a few key points to consider:

Similarities:

• Both are reference tools that list words along with information about them.
• Both are typically arranged alphabetically with definitions and often additional details like pronunciation, part of speech, and usage examples.

Differences:

• Scope: Dictionaries tend to have a broader scope, covering a wide range of words from general vocabulary to specialized fields. Lexicons, on the other hand, can be more specific in their focus, targeting a particular language, field of study, or even the vocabulary of an individual author.
• Depth of information: Dictionaries typically offer more information about each word, including definitions, pronunciations, usage examples, synonyms, antonyms, and etymological information. Lexicons might be more concise, focusing primarily on definitions and basic information.
• Historical usage: Traditionally, "lexicon" was used more for ancient languages like Greek or Latin, while "dictionary" referred to modern languages. However, this distinction has become less relevant in modern usage.

Here's a table summarizing the key differences:

Feature	Dictionary	Lexicon
Scope	Broad	Specific (language, field, author)
Information	More detailed (definitions, pronunciations, usage, etc.)	More concise (definitions, basic information)
Historical usage	Modern languages	Traditionally, ancient languages

In essence, all lexicons are dictionaries, but not all dictionaries are lexicons. Lexicons can be seen as specialized dictionaries with a narrower focus and potentially less detail per word entry.

Christian Alexander

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1288420#Comment_1288420

Thanks for this clarification. This is very helpful in my study and analysis. I really needed that explanation for sense. What are your favorite Greek lexicons and dictionaries? I use BDAG, TDNT, and LSJ.