Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Doug Kasten <doug.kasten AT juno.com>]

Friends, 

I picked up this thread mid-way but think your analogy a bit flat. 
Discourse does not 'build' a language as an engineer sets out to build a
skyscraper.  The thing is there.  Our job is to figure out how it is
built and what motivates its various features--features that may at first
glance seem odd, out of place, excessively bizarre.  In looking over this
'skyscraper' (to try and work with the analogy), I'll examine the top AND
the bottom...and the middle, exterior and interior.  By looking at the
top I'll understand why the bottom was built the way it was.  By
examining the bottom I will perhaps understand more of why the top turned
out like it did.

 I will not, however, build anything since there's only a magnificent
building before me.

I'm sure my take on the analogy has fallen flat somewhere but that's OK
since I see flaws in the skyscraper from the get-go.

Peace,
Doug
On Wed, 03 Feb 1999 06:54:53 +0800 Paul Zellmer
<zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph> writes:
>Dave Washburn wrote:
>
>> This is a very good analogy.  Another that comes to my mind is the
>> idea that discourse attempts to build a skyscraper from the top
>> down, instead of laying the foundation first so there's something to
>> build on.
>
>Dave,
>
>I think you have unwittingly hit upon the reason why these type 
>discussions keep
>extending on with no end in sight.  I personally do not approach BH in 
>order to "build
>a skyscraper."
>
>As a trained engineer who job at times past has been to analyze 
>existing systems and
>figure out "how they tick," I realize that the job of that type 
>analysis is completely
>different from the job of design or construction.  All the ones that I 
>know who do the
>analysis job look first at the largest unit, break it down into major 
>components, and
>then continue analyzing and *breaking* down until the various 
>processes are
>understood.  I simply am never planning on generating new biblical 
>hebrew!
>
>Please realize that this is not the approach that I use with Ibanag, 
>the language
>*into which* I am translating.  There I very much have to start from 
>bottom up,
>finding the correct words, the correct clause level forms, and the 
>correct discourse
>features to result in the closest reconstruction that I can manage to 
>the original
>text that I analyzed.
>
>HTH,
>
>Paul
>
>--
>Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
>Ibanag Translation Project
>Cabagan, Philippines
>
>zellmer AT faith.edu.ph
>
>
>
>
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