TIP of the day: Using a interlinear to understand Logos functioning part 2

MJ. Smith
MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 53,405
edited November 20 in English Forum

a continuation of >TIP of the day: Using a (reverse) interlinear to understand Logos functioning part 1

1. While reverse interlinears are available in two views - inline and bottom pane - the interlinears are available only in inline form. Note that while translators tend to speak of source and target languages, Logos has standardized to Manuscript (source) and Surface (target). Again one controls which lines display by checking or unchecking available items.

The available lines, all aligned at the word level, are:

  • Manuscript text: the content of the manuscript being translated, reflecting the text critical choices made by the translators.
  • Manuscript text transliterated; the content of the manuscript text converted to the Roman alphabet using a "standard" but unnamed transliteration scheme.
  • Manuscript text lemma: the dictionary form of the manuscript word. I believe Faithlife has developed their own list of such lemmas rather than using a specific lexicon.
  • Manuscript text lemma transliterated: again a conversion from the original to the Roman alphabet.
  • Lexical value/English gloss: the common equivalent word in English (think what you'd likely put on your vocabulary cards)
  • English literal translation: how the word would likely be translated in the LEB
  • Morphology coding: the grammatical morphological information is shown in codes that are documented here, and used in pop-ups translating the codes into words as well as in Morphological Searches.
  • Strong' s number: Greek or Hebrew as appropriate. My take on Strong's numbers is available here.
  • Louw-Nida Semantic Domain number: Available only for the New Testament

The keys for reading the interlinears:

2.  The relationship of the interlinear to the Context Menu choices. Green arrows show the interlinear items that appear as Context Menu items. Orange arrows show that the interlinear transliteration is placed beside the appropriate item in the Context Menu rather than as a separate item.

A similar example for the tool-tip pop-up.

3. How the interlinear/reverse interlinear changes the behavior of a resource. The Bible, The Message, does not have a reverse interlinear. The word "mother" does not create a Mary the mother of Jesus entry because it had no reverse interlinear path back to the person tag in the Greek.

However, The Lexham English Bible does have a reverse interlinear and therefore a path back to the person code in the Greek. Therefore, it does generate a Mary mother of Jesus entry.

Note however, that both The Message and The Lexham English Bible can generate the event Jesus is crucified based on verse mapping rather than individual words.

Note that the tagged information entries after the interlinear entries (person, event, cultural concept, label) are the same in the Greek Bible as in the Bible with a Reverse Interlinear.

4. Back to the interlinear fields. A Search can be built (or initiated from the Context Menu) for nearly every line item in the reverse interlinears/interlinears - assuming that you can enter either the transliteration or the original language in its own script.

Examples and notes:

  • Manuscript: "μητέρα" will find that precise form against all resources. It is not dependent upon Logos tagging.
  • Lemma: "<Lemma = lbs/el/μήτηρ>" will find all forms of the lemma across resources with tagged (or calculated?) lemmas. The "?" reflects my lack of knowledge as to how the lemmas in the Perseus collection are identified.
  • Root: "<Root = lbs/el/μητηρ>" will find the locations where the root is specifically attached to the word usually via a reverse interlinear. Note the large drop in number of resources for which a match was found.
  • Morphology: "<LogosMorphGr = NASF>" like the lemma this includes Perseus - whether tagged or calculated I don't know. If the form of the argument is a bit unfamiliar it is because this is the form when running a Basic Search rather than a Morphology Search.
  • Strong's Greek example: "<GreekStrongs = G3384>" will only search resources tagged with Strong's numbers - directly or through a reverse interlinear.
  • Louw-Nida Semantic Domain Numbers: "<LouwNida = LN 10.16>" will only search resources tagged with Louw-Nida numbers - directly or via a reverse interlinear
  • Bible Sense Lexicon: "<Sense = mother>" will only search resources tagged with Bible Sense Lexicon Keywords - directly or via a reverse interlinear.
  • Surface Text: "mother" will search everything for the string "mother" obeying the universal settings regarding capitalization and all forms.

5. The reason that I suspect Perseus lemma and morphology values are calculated rather than tagged in illustrated below. The user is given multiple lemmas and multiple forms which could apply to the word in question. This is unlike an interlinear equivalent where we are given a scholar's choice and the possible alternatives are hidden.

Note: I do not feel like an expert on the interlinear/reverse interlinear. Anyone who can jump in an correct me, add precision or fill-in what I have left out, please do jump-in.

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."