[b-greek] Re: More parsing

From: c stirling bartholomew (cc.constantine@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sat Apr 20 2002 - 14:30:23 EDT


on 4/20/02 9:10 AM, Daniel Riaņo wrote:

> Dear BGreekers,
>
> I don't have any parsed text of the NT available, but I am curious to
> know how the authors parse the SN or SP that is placed formally in
> dependence of an article in attributive position (I would also like
> to know how do they parse the article and the resulting tree!), i.e.
> the SN or SP between the asterisks in:
>
> TO\ E)PI/BLHMA TO\ *A)PO\ TOU= KAINOU=* Eu.Luc.5.36
> H( PI/STIS H( *DI' AU)TOU=* Act.Ap.3.16
> TH\N A)NA/STASIN TH\N *E)K NEKRW=N* Act.Ap.4.1-2
>
> What I am interested in is not in the *tagging* of either the article
> or the dependent syntagmata, but the *parsing* of its constituents
> within the whole group. I imagine there is Chomskyan procedure to
> parse such sentences, and I'd like to know it too, but I am more
> interested in non-generative approaches. Does anybody know examples
> of not Indo-European languages with the same construction?

Daniel,

Nice question. Not the sort of thing one can just look up in BDF, Zerwick or
any of the lesser grammars.

Here are the texts:

LUKE 5:36 ELEGEN DE KAI PARABOLHN PROS AUTOUS hOTI OUDEIS EPIBLHMA APO
hIMATIOU KAINOU SCISAS EPIBALLEI EPI hIMATION PALAION: EI DE MH GE, KAI TO
KAINON SCISEI KAI TWi PALAIWi OU SUMFWNHSEI TO EPIBLHMA TO APO TOU KAINOU.

ACTS 3:16 KAI EPI THi PISTEI TOU ONOMATOS AUTOU TOUTON hON QEWREITE KAI
OIDATE, ESTEREWSEN TO ONOMA AUTOU, KAI hH PISTIS hH DI' AUTOU EDWKEN AUTWi
THN hOLOKLHRIAN TAUTHN APENANTI PANTWN hUMWN.

ACTS 4:1-2 LALOUNTWN DE AUTWN PROS TON LAON EPESTHSAN AUTOIS hOI hIEREIS KAI
hO STRATHGOS TOU hIEROU KAI hOI SADDOUKAIOI, DIAPONOUMENOI DIA TO DIDASKEIN
AUTOUS TON LAON KAI KATAGGELLEIN EN TWi IHSOU THN ANASTASIN THN EK NEKRWN,

From a functional perspective one could say that the constituent TO APO TOU
KAINOU in LUKE 5:36, limits TO EPIBLHMA. So I would parse it the same way
you would an arthrous adjective or noun in the same slot. How to parse the
elements of the prepositional phrase itself? Why bother? It performs as a
unit adjectivally, the parsing of the leaves of the tree does not seem to
fulfil any useful purpose once the function of the unit is identified. Some
hard core generative types might take issue with this statement. The
constituent THN EK NEKRWN in ACTS 4:1-2, limits THN ANASTASIN. Same
situation, same comments.

The constituent hH DI' AUTOU in ACTS 3:16 limits hH PISTIS. Formally this
looks like the other two examples, but there are some intriguing semantic
ambiguities in here that are lacking in the other two examples. Determining
just exactly what DI' AUTOU means in this context isn't trivial. However,
not sure this will impact the parsing problem any since I would assume that
you are parsing syntax functions and not semantic ones. However, as anyone
who has been through the generative school of thought knows, keeping the
syntax functions and semantic ones separate is easy to say but difficult to
implement.

I guess that from my eclectic functional point of view, the construction:
article -> prep (additive, substantive, pronoun) does not really present one
with any new problems in terms of parsing trees.

What aspect of your question have I overlooked. I have the distinct feeling
that I missed the point of your inquiry.

Greetings,

Clay

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



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