This new grammar qualifies for inclusion here because its description of Hellenistic Greek is informed by clear advances in modern linguistics. The new grammar does not follow a single linguistic paradigm, but draws heavily on insights which are accepted widely in a variety of schools of linguistics.
Several years ago the Greek Grammar Seminar of the Westar Institute began working to produce a successor to the Blass-Debrunner-Funk Greek grammar (A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, University of Chicago, 1961). The new grammar is not limited to the Christian literature but maintains a focus on that corpus.
As does the present edition, the new grammar begins with a treatment of phonology, morphology, and word formation. Later sections address major issues of syntax and semantics, including sentence structure (constituent order, etc.), the verbal system (including verbal aspect), and the structure of Noun Phrases. Finally, the grammar will include a section not presently treated in any existing grammar of Greek: discourse structures and functions.
The revision committee represents a wide variety of theoretical perspectives. Contributions from almost any linguistic perspective are potentially useful to the project. The final product, however, is intended to be useful both to the specialist and to readers not educated in linguistics.
A great deal of research remains to be done for this project. If you are involved in work on Hellenistic Greek or supervise graduate students who are, the Greek Grammar list is a place where you may find dialogue and exchange ideas related to your field with several of the contributing authors for the new grammar. From time to time potential topics of research are posted to this list. You may also participate in the debate over the structure of the new grammar and its contents.
If you have questions or comments about the grammar which you do not wish to share with the list, you may contact Micheal Palmer by clicking here. The main editor is Daryl Schmidt. You may contact Dr. Schmidt by clicking here.
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