Greek verbs and word order
Greek word order, being a non-configurational language, is more dramatically influenced by information structure than configurational languages such as English. I understand that Greek word order is largely concerned with the ordering of (1) old and new information, as well as (2) assumed and asserted information. These categories are sometimes referred to as "topic" and "focus". All of this has a significant impact on word order, regardless of the grammatical category (subject, object, indirect object). Furthermore, speakers assign importance/salience to this information and contrast it with other information. Is it possible to search for a particular verb while specifying a particular type of grammatical category? ἀπέστειλέν=με ὁ ζῶν πατὴρ The living father sent me (John 6:57). I want to search for the verb found in John 6:57
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Christian Alexander said:
I want to search for the verb found in John 6:57
If that is all you want to do, right-click it, select the lemma on the left of the contect menu and then select the Search -> Bible option on the right.
But, you seem to be looking for something more but I can't understand what.
As has been requested previously please ask your question clearly without unnecessary context.
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Christian Alexander said:
Greek word order, being a non-configurational language, is more dramatically influenced by information structure than configurational languages such as English. I understand that Greek word order is largely concerned with the ordering of (1) old and new information, as well as (2) assumed and asserted information. These categories are sometimes referred to as "topic" and "focus". All of this has a significant impact on word order, regardless of the grammatical category (subject, object, indirect object). Furthermore, speakers assign importance/salience to this information and contrast it with other information. Is it possible to search for a particular verb while specifying a particular type of grammatical category? ἀπέστειλέν=με ὁ ζῶν πατὴρ The living father sent me (John 6:57). I want to search for the verb found in John 6:57
Are you saying: Because Koine Greek is considered a non-configurational language, the word order is determined by the information that the speaker wishes to highlight rather than being determined by strict grammatical rules. The sentence is sometimes modeled as having two parts: topic i.e. that which is shared knowledge or already mentioned and focus i.e. that which is new emphasized information. Can a Logos search identify topic/focus? Note that if you are simply wanting to search for the verb, this entire preface is unnecessary obfuscation.
Logos does not code topic/focus, you have to do the work - the discourse grammar coding would be a bit of a help. You could request that this aspect of the language be added to the linguistic tagging. Searching for verbs is straightforward as Graham indicated.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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MJ. Smith said:
Because Koine Greek is considered a non-configurational language, the word order is determined by the information that the speaker wishes to highlight rather than being determined by strict grammatical rules. The sentence is sometimes modeled as having two parts: topic i.e. that which is shared knowledge or already mentioned and focus i.e. that which is new emphasized information
Very close. Taylor (1998:1) claims that `at some point, or over some period in its history, Greek has changed from basically nonconfigurational to basically configurational' Taylor, Ann. 1988. `From Non-Configurational to Configurational: A Study of Syntactic Change in Greek.' The Penn Review of Linguistics, 12th Penn Linguistics Colloquium, February 1988, pp. 1-15. Word order also changes based on the contextual meaning, emphasis, and syntatical style of a sentence. This complexity can be challenging. Thanks for your thoughts MJ.
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Christian Alexander said:
Very close. Taylor (1998:1) claims that `at some point, or over some period in its history, Greek has changed from basically nonconfigurational to basically configurational' Taylor, Ann. 1988.
It is a fact that all Indo-European languages were initially non-configurational as PIE was non-configurational. Therefore, any Indo-European which is now configurational changed at some time. The question is simply when and why. But again, you are providing more information than necessary to ask your question. I had rewritten you question in response to the preceding comment that you provided so much context as to make your initial question unclear.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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How can I determine when Koine Greek changed from non-configurational to configurational? Are there good books on the topic?
Although word order is free in Greek, there are certain standards that make anything sound Greek. Some apparent ones include the fact that sentences are often SOV, which stands for Subject (nominative), Object (accusative), and Verb. Indeed, the verb is nearly invariably the final word in a Greek sentence. I also want to do a search for one of these types from example below. Often the personal pronoun is omitted when it is the subject of a sentence. For example, one verse in the New Testament. John 1:21 *Καὶ ἠρώτησαν αὐτόν, Τί οὖν; Ἠλίας εἶ σύ; *Καὶ λέγει, *Οὐκ εἰμί. Ὁ προφήτης εἶ σύ; *Καὶ ἀπεκρίθη, I read these sources. Dejan Matić, “Topic, Focus, and Discourse Structure: Ancient Greek Word Order,” Studies in Language 27 (2003) 573-633; Frank Scheppers, The Colon Hypothesis: Word Order, Discourse Segmentation and Discourse Coherence in Ancient Greek (2011).
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