Generative grammar has moved on from its old theories about syntax. Can we please do the same with their semantic theories, too?
Category Archive: Lexicography
Meaning is hard. Unfortunately, I’m not going to make any easier here.
Compounds are complicated. They are formally complex, involving wide variation in their morphological/lexical formation. These formal complexities introduce their own series of semantic challenges.
Following up on my post with Greek language papers at SBL, here’s a similarly compiled list for ETS. Some of these are from different sessions and actually lover lap with each other, so you’ll need to plan accordingly if you’re interested.
Pro-tips for surviving without alcohol in a barren land from Cyrus the Great.
Herein, we come to the end of our discussion of the semantics of σκύβαλον and how it relates to English taboo words.
Wherein σκύβαλον becomes a much larger problem in cities compared to out on the farm.
This piece picks up from Obscenity in Paul? The Question of σκύβαλον, examining how the word σκύβαλον is used […]
Is there profanity in Paul? It’s sort of an old question. There’s a certain appeal to the idea for some perhaps and the fact that σκύβαλον can be glossed ‘dung’ or ‘manure’ likely encourages the possibility to extend its English rendering a little further.
Brill’s Etymological Dictionary of Greek by Robert Beekes has been sitting quietly on prepublication page at Logos.com for about two and a half years now. It languished for some time, particularly because it was priced, as all Brill books are, exorbitantly high. That seems to have changed recently.
It’s now on pre-order for $104.
rather than, I can’t remember, $299? The original pre-order price was something like that. We have left the realm of astronomically unaffordable and have arrived in the realm of a great deal for 1,808 pages of Greek and proto-Indo-European lexicography.
Etymological dictionaries are a special breed, of course. The mode of operation for their usage diverges from a standard lexicon like BDAG or LSJM. The coverage is more specific to words with a longer history and you crack them open for the purposes of research rather than reading or interpretation of texts. Nevertheless, Beekes’ etymological dictionary is an essential for any serious linguistic research on Greek diachronically or proto-Indo-European more generally.
$104 for a digital version of Beekes? I’m in—especially since I don’t go for using print lexicons any more. Digital is better. Now we just need Peeters to realize this so we can have digital edition of Muraoka’s LXX lexicon, too.
In the meantime, all I can say is: “Well done Brill & Logos.”
Koine-Greek 