Language
As I mature as both a reader of ancient texts and a teacher, I find myself saying a lot more, "It depends...", as well as "You could translate it that way", "That's one way to render it", and a lot of "
Updates
As promised, I have a new short pdf text up at Patristic Readers, it's Gregory of Nyssa's Ad Simplicium, De Fide. I decided to tackle this short text after finishing up Ad Ablabium, partly because the latter is too short for a print volume by itself,
Latin
No true Scotsman is a form of (informal) logical fallacy, of the type where having set up definition X of something, e.g. “A scotsman is blah, blah, blah”, and faced with a particular example, “Well then, so-and-so is a scotsman, based on your definition”, the interlocutor moves
Pedagogy
Here are some ideas I was tossing around with some students last week. Let me list the exercises first. 1. Read a passage, 10 or so verses or more, at a measured pace. No analysis, just ask yourself, “what percentage of that did I understand?" 2. Read a passage
Language
One way to look at language as a phenomenon is to realise that it solves problems. That 'problem' is communication, and so language solves a set of problems that range from the most simplistic (I want you to give me a rock), to the incredibly complex (I want
Updates
Not entirely, but I am writing here a lot less, and it's probably (at least partially) a good thing? This isn't (entirely) a 'sorry for not blogging more' post, it's 'here's how I raised my own productivity' post.
Greek
Just now I've posted up and released a pdf version of my Patristic Readers edition of Gregory of Nyssa's Ad Ablabium. Altogether, the number of hours for this volume is not staggering, but it has taken quite some time. I've refined my process for
Updates
I spent a considerable amount of time in April writing up material on Ephesians, and then 2 weeks in Mongolia teaching Ephesians. That was useful, productive, but not very PhD related. Patristic Readers As I write this update I am quite seriously about an hour's worth of work
Updates
No, not state of the Projects. That would be in a few days. Today I'm just going to write about what's been happening, what's coming up, etc.. On the weekend I flew back home from Mongolia, where I taught Greek exegesis of Ephesians over
Language
The Patrologist has been quiet lately because he's in Mongolia teaching Ephesians in Greek. It's really a test of one's linguistic competencies to explain the intricacies of Pauline grammar and theology in a third language while your notes are in your first. But it
Language
You know, at the end of last week I put up that youtube video with an invitation to come and learn some Latin with me through CKI. I knew before I posted it that there would be errors, because I know that anytime I speak in a non-native language
Language
I’ve been trying to figure out how to write about this for a while, and I don’t think I’ve got it worked out yet. Firstly, what’s the gap between literal and figurative language? Literal language is generally thought of as ‘according to the proper meaning of