Meta Language

Matthew Longhorn
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Re: Meta Language

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Stirling Bartholomew wrote: October 25th, 2020, 12:56 pm What benefit does a student who wants to read Koine attain from becoming an expert in grammatical tagging?
I would approach this question the same way I would the question of why I was taught maths and geography at school. I have never applied 99% of it, but if I wanted to study maths at university I would not be able to without the basics on that. If students aren’t exposed to these things and get a decent handle on them, then they will be hindered if they want to go to further study.
You mention the secondary literature, well without knowing what the terminology is looking things up would be hard and understanding the literature even harder
Stirling Bartholomew wrote: October 25th, 2020, 12:56 pm Someone else asked why you were posting in the beginners forum
Although tangential to what you were saying, it is probably worth me answering. The reason I post on the beginners forum is that I assume my questions are going to be beginner level a lot of the time. I tried study through Wales Evangelical School of Theology once but dropped out rapidly due to depression that has hit me regularly through my life. This prevents me from thinking clearly often, and is so at the moment, so I would prefer to assume that I am missing something obvious. I recently did two out of four Greek modules with BibleMesh; again depression prevented me from continuing. Without knowing whether I actually have a grasp of the subject matter, it seems more reasonable to assume beginner level.
Stirling Bartholomew wrote: October 25th, 2020, 12:56 pm Some students get locked in to the path of becoming perennial second quarter Greek students. They end up doing second quarter greek for their entire lives. I did that for almost a decade.
I should be a lot better at reading Greek than I am now if I focussed on reading the language and not about the language, so I definitely know what you are saying here, and agree. It comes down to what you are learning the language for though.
Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Meta Language

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Matthew Longhorn wrote: October 25th, 2020, 1:46 pm I should be a lot better at reading Greek than I am now if I focussed on reading the language and not about the language, so I definitely know what you are saying here, and agree. It comes down to what you are learning the language for though.
You are better at this than you think you are (and I think I can claim that confidently). You are least at what I would call an intermediate level, and nothing that lots of reading practice won't solve.

I'm sympathetic to both Stirling and you here. Sometimes I become virulently anti-metalanguage, at other times I can't wait to spout it. The real problem is when people argue from the metalanguage rather than from a real understanding of the text in its context. Metalanguage can be a a prop for people weak in the language, but that's not you at this point.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Meta Language

Post by Stephen Carlson »

I'm generally fine with metalanguage.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Devenios Doulenios
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Re: Meta Language

Post by Devenios Doulenios »

Re: vol. 3 of the Mega Lexicon:

This Textkit thread has a link to a file containing both vols. 3 and 4 together: https://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-for ... 07#p186807
Dewayne Dulaney
Δεβένιος Δουλένιος

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