Re: Semiotics and Word Studies

From: Steven Craig Miller (scmiller@www.plantnet.com)
Date: Thu Dec 30 1999 - 08:32:49 EST


<x-flowed>To: Clayton Stirling Bartholomew,

<< All are good if used intelligently. The one most likely not to be used
intelligently is TDNT. I would also include C. Spicq and NIDTT and EDNT and
Cremer (kind of old) as works worth looking at. The danger with
"theological dictionaries" like TDNT, NIDTT is that they tend to reinforce
the idea that individual words carry around a massive quantity of
theological baggage. However, the problem, as I have already said, isn't so
much the works as the logic of the user. To use these books intelligently
means to have read a number of works on lexical semantics by authors like
JP Louw, EA Nida, M Silva, J Barr and several others. >>

I would concur with most everything you have said on this topic throughout
your many messages. And my reply here is not meant to take exception with
anything you have said. I would only add that despite the flaw of TDNT, it
can at times be a wealth of information. It varies from entry to entry, but
some entries offer a vast history of certain ideas which can be found
across a large number of ancient works. I remember, as a Classics student,
using the TDNT often to supplement my knowledge of ancient Greek literature.

There is perhaps one sad note. It was the linguistic flaw which you and
others (rightly) attack in the TDNT (and other works) which was the driving
force behind creating the TDNT in the first place (such as the notion of an
"internal lexicography"; see the preface to TDNT). Now that this linguistic
flaw has been exposed, the chances are that there will be little desire to
replace the TDNT by revising and updating it. It should be painfully clear
to anyone who has used the two works that the EDNT doesn't come anywhere
near the scope of the TDNT.

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller@www.plantnet.com
Disclaimer: "I'm just a simple house-husband (with no post-grad degree),
what do I know?"

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