[b-greek] Re:Discourse Levels / particles

From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Thu Dec 14 2000 - 14:34:36 EST


on 12/14/00 9:31 AM, clayton stirling bartholomew wrote:

> I wonder about limiting the scope of GAR to discourse level. There are
> different types of functions. It seems to me that GAR might perform a
> semantic function at the clause (=your sentence) level while performing a
> structuring function at the discourse level. In other words GAR marks
> relationships between medium or high level discourse constituents (clauses
> and paragraphs) which is a structuring function but also contributes some
> semantic color to the following clause by identifying it as a consequence or
> what ever of something preceding.

This is a little muddy, comes from posting prior to my first dose of
caffeine. The word "consequence" in the last sentence should be
"inferential." GAR in some contexts marks the following clause as providing
supporting material from which some preceding proposition could be inferred.

However, my main point is much more abstract than this. Levinsohn* states
that one approach to describing the functions of conjunctions "is to
describe each conjunction in terms of the single constraint that it places
on the way the sentence concerned is to be processed with reference to its
context."

An approach that reduces the function of any particle to a "single
constraint" is in my humble opinion is going to result in lost meaning. I am
suggesting that a single particle in a single instance in a single context
can have simultaneous functions operating within different functional
domains of the discourse model.

The particle (single instance, k.t.l.) will have only one function within
any given domain, such as the domain of paragraph structure, but there are
other functional domains like clause level semantics where the particle may
also contribute some added "meaning" to the clause. This "meaning" will be
in some sense related to the function within the domain of paragraph
structure. In other words, GAR can be used to limit the following clause by
adding to its semantic color the notion of explanation.

To some this will seem like splitting hairs but I don't think it is.
 
Clay

--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062

*page 69, 4th paragraph in Levinsohn, Stephen Discourse Features of New
Testament Greek, 2nd Ed.
 SIL 2000 .


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