Searching for missing and extra words in a Bible translation

In many translations of the Bible there are “added words” that the translators decided were needed to clarify the meaning of the text.

There are also “untranslated words” that the translators thought they did not need to put in their text.

How does one search for these “missing” and “extra” words?

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Comments

MJ. Smith

I don't think it is truly possible even with the extensive tagging. Some "missing words" are simply implied in English or expressed via punctuation or the choice of gloss in another word. Some "added words" are implied in Hebrew but must be explicit in English. So you need to define the characteristics that you mean to stipulate are "missing" or "added". Then you need to choose a translation for which there is a reverse interlinear so we have the text used by the translators. Even then, I can't think of a way that does not require wildcards thus severely limiting the length of text it is practical to search.

Therefore, I would suggest that you use the in-line interlinear and eyeball the potential mismatches between the original and the translation and make an educated guess as to the degree to which the word is "added" or "missing". Morphology carries much of the meaning that results in word count mismatches so I'd always show it as well.

Dave Hooton

In many translations of the Bible there are “added words” that the translators decided were needed to clarify the meaning of the text.

It's laborious and you need to identify every translated word via wildcards

(a*, b*, c*, d*, e*, f*, g*, h*, i*, j*, k*, l*, m*, n*, o*, p*, q*, r*, s*, t*, u*, v*, w*, x*, y*, z*)

Added words don't have a morphology, so you need to identify each part of Hebrew & Greek morphology

We want:---> word NOT INTERSECTS morphology i.e.

(a*, b*, c*, d*, e*, f*, g*, h*, i*, j*, k*, l*, m*, n*, o*, p*, q*, r*, s*, t*, u*, v*, w*, x*, y*, z*) NOT INTERSECTS (<LogosMorphHeb ~ A>, <LogosMorphHeb ~ C?>, <LogosMorphHeb ~ D?>, <LogosMorphHeb ~ G> , <LogosMorphHeb ~ I> , <LogosMorphHeb ~ J????>, <LogosMorphHeb ~ N?????>, <LogosMorphHeb ~ P?>, <LogosMorphHeb ~ R??????>, <LogosMorphHeb ~ U????>, <LogosMorphHeb ~ V????????>, <LogosMorphHeb ~ X>)

Then you repeat for Greek Morphology.

The search takes about 2.5 minutes on my laptop, with 8th generation i5 and SSD. It took 6 min on my 5th gen laptop with HDD. And it doesn't make much difference if you restrict the range from OT to a single book!

There are also “untranslated words” that the translators thought they did not need to put in their text.

Reverse the query i.e. morphology NOT INTERSECTS word, but they are readily identified in the Inline Interlinear with periods/dots at the surface level.

You can choose which morphology is not translated e.g. the article, <LogosMorphHeb ~ A> NOT INTERSECTS (a*, b*, c*, d*, e*, f*, g*, h*, i*, j*, k*, l*, m*, n*, o*, p*, q*, r*, s*, t*, u*, v*, w*, x*, y*, z*)

David Ames

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/993668#Comment_993668

569,297 results in 1250 articles (1289.49 sec) [21.49 minutes on a four year old i7 HP lap top]

(a*, b*, c*, d*, e*, f*, g*, h*, i*, j*, k*, l*, m*, n*, o*, p*, q*, r*, s*, t*, u*, v*, w*, x*, y*, z*) NOT INTERSECTS (<LogosMorphGr ~ A>, <LogosMorphGr ~ C?>, <LogosMorphGr ~ D?>, <LogosMorphGr ~ G> , <LogosMorphGr ~ I> , <LogosMorphGr ~ J????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ N?????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ P?>, <LogosMorphGr ~ R??????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ U????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ V????????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ X>)

952,718 resilts in 1,250 articles (303.35 sec) [5.06 minutes]

<LogosMorphHeb ~ A> NOT INTERSECTS (a*, b*, c*, d*, e*, f*, g*, h*, i*, j*, k*, l*, m*, n*, o*, p*, q*, r*, s*, t*, u*, v*, w*, x*, y*, z*)

65 results in 55 articles (1637.34 sec) [27.29 minutes]

Thanks. Now I just have to see if they found anything interesting.

Liam

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/993691#Comment_993691

Not sure how to do the extra words, but I typically utilize the HDNT/HDOT for the untranslated ones. In these resources they place a dot where each untranslated word is.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/993691#Comment_993691

1. Hebrew Morph:

569,297 results in 1250 articles (1289.49 sec) [21.49 minutes on a four year old i7 HP lap top]

181,252 in 929 articles in ESV. In Basic Search you use Bible Text in Old Testament, else you get results from non-bible text and New Testament!

2. Greek Morph:

(<LogosMorphGr ~ A>, <LogosMorphGr ~ C?>, <LogosMorphGr ~ D?>, <LogosMorphGr ~ G> , <LogosMorphGr ~ I> , <LogosMorphGr ~ J????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ N?????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ P?>, <LogosMorphGr ~ R??????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ U????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ V????????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ X>)

You have to generate the Greek Morphology (from Morph Search) as it is different to Hebrew i.e.

(<LogosMorphGr ~ B?>, <LogosMorphGr ~ C?>, <LogosMorphGr ~ D???>, <LogosMorphGr ~ I>, <LogosMorphGr ~ J????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ N????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ P>, <LogosMorphGr ~ R??????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ T?>, <LogosMorphGr ~ V???????>, <LogosMorphGr ~ X?>)

952,718 resilts in 1,250 articles (303.35 sec) [5.06 minutes]

In ESV, I get 52569 results in 260 articles. You must limit Basic Search to Bible Text in New Testament.