Lexical classification resource

Semantic Range, Lexicography, and other approaches to word meaning - in general, or for particular words.
Doug Dinnsen
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Joined: October 13th, 2015, 6:07 pm

Lexical classification resource

Post by Doug Dinnsen »

Is there a lexicon that classifies all or most Koine and/or Classical Greek words like Louw-Nida does? I believe that Louw-Nida only includes words from the Bible. It would be helpful to know other words that they could have used. For example, Louw-Nida only lists one word with the meaning, "to cause to be large" μεγαλύνω. It would be helpful to know what other synonyms an author could have possibly used. It would be especially helpful if they used the same lexical domain schema as Louw-Nida.
RandallButh
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Re: Lexical classification resource

Post by RandallButh »

Actually, the resource does not even need to be a semantic-domain dictionary. A simple English to Greek with regularly attested vocab and examples from 200BCEto200CE would be very useful. 1st century Greek-Greek or Eng-Greek would be a doorway to begin to appreciate the semantic grid within the audiences that Paul and Luke spoke to.
Doug Dinnsen
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Joined: October 13th, 2015, 6:07 pm

Re: Lexical classification resource

Post by Doug Dinnsen »

RandallButh
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Re: Lexical classification resource

Post by RandallButh »

Yes, you can use that,
but you must filter the information so that you don't take some poetic or epic word and assume that it was in the vocabulary of a first century farmer in Derbe.
Always check to see if, how, and where the word is used in Josephus, LXX, Epictetus, Plutarch, Apostolic Fathers, even Galen. Papyri help, too.
Doug Dinnsen
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Joined: October 13th, 2015, 6:07 pm

Re: Lexical classification resource

Post by Doug Dinnsen »

Can you recommend an English to 1-cent Greek reference that does not require the 2nd step of finding out where/how the word was used?
Jonathan Robie
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Re: Lexical classification resource

Post by Jonathan Robie »

Doug Dinnsen wrote: June 2nd, 2022, 8:41 am Is there a lexicon that classifies all or most Koine and/or Classical Greek words like Louw-Nida does? I believe that Louw-Nida only includes words from the Bible. It would be helpful to know other words that they could have used. For example, Louw-Nida only lists one word with the meaning, "to cause to be large" μεγαλύνω. It would be helpful to know what other synonyms an author could have possibly used. It would be especially helpful if they used the same lexical domain schema as Louw-Nida.
We will soon be adding word senses to this dataset:

https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/

We are using data from Louw & Nida, a group at SIL classified each instance by sense.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
RandallButh
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Re: Lexical classification resource

Post by RandallButh »

There is a methodological problem with using only NT data as a base: it does not represent a full cross-section of normal, common language use in the society.

For example, a "NT" dictionary will list "yellow" as θειώδης, but a little kid would say ξανθός. That skewing is not addressed in most NT dictionaries, but BDAG sometimes has corrective hints.
Jonathan Robie
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Re: Lexical classification resource

Post by Jonathan Robie »

RandallButh wrote: June 3rd, 2022, 2:02 pm There is a methodological problem with using only NT data as a base: it does not represent a full cross-section of normal, common language use in the society.

For example, a "NT" dictionary will list "yellow" as θειώδης, but a little kid would say ξανθός. That skewing is not addressed in most NT dictionaries, but BDAG sometimes has corrective hints.
True, but I need to work with existing datasets. If someone wants to tag New Testament instances and identify senses in, say, BrillDAG, I'd be happy to use that dataset. Or if there's a better dataset you know of, I'd like to know about it.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
RandallButh
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Re: Lexical classification resource

Post by RandallButh »

I sympathize, Jonathan.

The issue of the wider 1st-2nd CE language only needs to be articulated because of the tendency for people to look for the coin under the streetlight.
And then people become complacent because "they already have adequate tools." Fortunately, most of our sources are becoming more and more digitized. I've even got a back-organized Eng-Greek from Accordance sources, plus some notes, but it is a long long way from potential publication.
Jonathan Robie
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Re: Lexical classification resource

Post by Jonathan Robie »

RandallButh wrote: June 4th, 2022, 1:19 pm I sympathize, Jonathan.

The issue of the wider 1st-2nd CE language only needs to be articulated because of the tendency for people to look for the coin under the streetlight.
And then people become complacent because "they already have adequate tools." Fortunately, most of our sources are becoming more and more digitized. I've even got a back-organized Eng-Greek from Accordance sources, plus some notes, but it is a long long way from potential publication.
I think we need better tools. And integrating with other data sources is one of the things these tools should do. So far, we have released only the datasets, and only part of that. One of the things these tools can do is make it easier for researchers to create new datasets.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
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