[Biblical-languages] Right-brained language learning

Norbert Rennert norbert_rennert at sil.org
Thu Nov 27 19:21:45 EST 2003


Polycarp66 at aol.com wrote:

> I'll take a look at your page later.  My initial reaction is that your 
> ability to accomplish this is dependent upon your knowledge of the 
> language and your ability to devise algorithms to implement a correct 
> syntactical usage of the vocabulary.  One criticism of some texts 
> written by some who are knowledgable in the field of Greek (also 
> Hebrew) is that they contain "made up" sentences.  I think this is 
> basically what this would amount to.  I'm not one to criticize these 
> "made up" sentences unless the result is that the constructions are 
> not anywhere attested in the literature, but the danger exists.
>  
> You might try www.greeklatinaudio.com <http://www.greeklatinaudio.com> 
> for a reading of the GNT (Westcott & Hort).  Perhaps you will find 
> that helpful in that you can then hear the reading as well as see it.  
> Thus far he has Revelation, Matthew and part of Mark finished.
>  
> gfsomsel
>
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>
I appreciate your concern about the computer making up constructions 
which are unnatural. While I do not rule this possibility out, I'd like 
to clarify that in my approach, I do not manipulate syntax. I leave the 
order of the words as they are given. What my script does is change 
things like tense, person, plurality etc. I am trying to provide a 
method to learn Greek morphology not syntax. My greatest challenge was 
learning the paradigms. I think being able to recycle a story into many 
different forms will have an advantage because once the base vocabulary 
has been learned, the semantics of the story remain largely stable. So, 
assuming the student has learned the vocabulary used in a given lesson, 
as they re-read the story from a new perspective and come across a new 
form, they would know two things: 1) they would already know the root 
meaning, and 2) they would know what the new form represented 
grammatically because they selected that from the controls offered on 
the page. My hope is that this will be a quicker and more enjoyable way 
to learn the Greek endings.

Norbert Rennert




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