Course Outline for Greek Discourse Grammar Class



Prominence Marking Devices of the Greek New Testament

Course Outline (Tentative)

Steven E. Runge, DLitt

Description

Most grammatical explanations one finds of NT Greek are based largely upon how something is translated into English, focusing on assigning a syntactic meaning (e.g. historical present or imperatival participle). This approach does little to help us understand Greek on its own terms as Greek. In other words, why use a present tense verb for a past-tense action? Why use a participle instead of an imperative? What difference does it make which form is used?

This class introduces a functional approach to understanding prominence-marking devices and their significance for preaching and teaching. The course will utilize an electronic database that annotates the occurrences of these devices in the Greek NT, allowing you to interact with it like a commentary rather than having to gain sufficient competence to conduct your own analysis.

This course only requires basic familiarity with Greek grammar, not the ability to parse and sight-read. The course objective is to help you better understand what is communicated by the different grammatical devices, and does not require you to re-memorize vocabulary and paradigms from first-year Greek. We will be working from English translations and interlinear-Greek texts, so only minimal knowledge of Greek grammar is required. The majority of the course will be devoted to illustration and application of the concepts in actual texts, not working with theory. If you want to spend a week closely studying God's Word with a view to practical application, and are not afraid to use an interlinear Greek text, then this course is for you. 

Course Objectives:

▪ To develop a framework for understanding the role of prominence-marking devices in discourse and the effects that they achieve,

▪ To gain a working knowledge of prominence-marking, especially the ability to correlate the Greek devices to their English counterparts,

▪ To complement student’s current understanding of exegetical grammar with a functional, discourse-based approach to Greek grammar,

▪ To complete the majority of the exegetical preparation required for teaching or preaching an extended expositional series through an extended corpus.

Daily Schedule:

8:30-9:15 Introduce new concepts

9:15-10:00 Application to exposition of sample passages

10:00-10:15 Break

10:15-11:00 Introduce new concepts

11:00-11:45 Application to exposition of sample passages

11:45-12:00 Q and A

12:00-1:00 Lunch break

1:00-3:30 Independent study, one-on-one appointments available

3:30-4:30 Informal student presentation of how new concepts contribute to their passage

4:30-5:00 Q and A

Course Schedule:

Monday: Introductory framework and Grammar review

▪ Grammatical choices as evidence of authorial intent: ‘Choice implies meaning’

▪ Processing Greek as Greek: looking at what things do, not just how they are translated

Tuesday: Forward-pointing devices

▪ Point-counterpoint sets

▪ Forward-pointing reference/target

▪ Meta-comments

▪ Redundant quotative frames

▪ Tail-head linkage

▪ Historical present

Wednesday: Framing devices

▪ Circumstantial frames

▪ Topical frames

▪ Conditional frames

▪ Temporal frames

▪ Spatial frames

▪ Comparative frames

▪ Reason/result frames

▪ Left-dislocations

Thursday: Thematic highlighting devices

▪ Thematic addition

▪ Overspecification

▪ Right-dislocation

▪ Changed reference

▪ Near/far distinction

▪ Thematic address

Friday: Putting it all together

▪ Parables of Jesus-Synoptic accounts of parable of the Sower

▪ Narrative events-The return of the 70?

▪ Pauline correction-Galatians 1

▪ Exposition from Hebrews, James or John

Required Texts:

A Greek New Testament (either UBS 3rd or 4th edition or NA27)

Runge, Steven E., Introduction to New Testament Prominence-Marking Devices, Bellingham WA: Logos Bible Software, Forthcoming (approx. 200-250 pp.)

Runge, Steven E., The Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament, Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008.

Discourse Grammar Reading Packet: Collection of conference papers, articles, and selected chapters from monographs applying discourse concepts to NT exegesis (approximately 200 pp.)

Recommended Texts:

Heckert, J. K. Discourse Function of Conjoiners in the Pastoral Epistles (Dallas: SIL International, 1996). 111 pp.

Levinsohn, Stephen H. Discourse Features of New Testament Greek: A Coursebook on the Information Structure of New Testament Greek 2nd edition (Dallas: SIL International, 2000). 290 pp.

Course Assignments and Grading:

While the long-term objective of this course is to prepare you to apply discourse-based principles in your exegesis, the short-term objective is to be prepared to preach though a roughly a 200 verse corpus of the NT. This corpus will be selected in consultation with the instructor, but the idea would be something roughly the size of Philippians, the Sermon on the Mount, or the Upper room discourse of John. All assignments, lectures and activities are focused on these objectives. By the time you finish the assignments, I want you to own your text, to have an integrated understanding of how the structure and the devices serve the communicative goals of the writer.

Reading 25% All reading are to be completed before the week of classes begins. I will expect a basic familiarity with the concepts, which will be developed and reinforced by the class sessions.

Class presentations and participation 15% Student are expected to contribute each afternoon based on the analysis and study they have conducted on their chosen corpus. After the morning class, students will be expected to apply the concepts to their corpus in the hours after lunch. This work will be completed in the evening hours. Students are expected to share new insights they have gained through their study, both regarding the overall flow of the text, as well as the exegesis of specific passages. The participation will necessarily be informal, but should evidence thoughtful application. This time will also provide opportunity for the instructor to gauge progress daily, and to determine areas that need further development.

Exegetical Paper/Discourse Commentary on assigned passage (20-25 pp.) 40% A paper of 20-25 pages will be written, conforming to the Seminary’s standards regarding format and citation of scholarly material. The purpose of the paper is to provide a discussion of how the discourse devices and features contribute to the cohesion and development of the story or argument in the student’s chosen corpus. The paper should not simply catalog the features. Instead, it should allow someone not familiar with the concepts to be talked through your passage, ‘showing them the sights’ as it were. At the same time, this paper should be a guide to how you would preach your way through this corpus, noting how and why each part hangs together.

Expository Outline of assigned passage 20% This outline should be something of a blueprint for your passage, a game plan for how you would teach or preach your way through the corpus. Rather than simply cataloging the content, this assignment will be assessed on how well the decisions can be corroborated with the grammatical information found in the Greek text. To this extent, it will not be possible simply to draw upon an existing outline. Students are allowed to make use of other outlines, but will need to provide a rational for their decisions.

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