Be warned. This thread takes up another thread (http://discourse.textkit.com/t/plato-apology-34-d1-3/15948/39) that I had just brought to an end by saying
This is getting us nowhere, and could go on for ever. I’m sorry, Tugodum, my efforts at elucidation are at an end. I hope what I’ve written may be of help to someone, if not to you.
Here is just one excerpt from my fruitless replies on this issue:
Tugodum, you say you were taught to translate a construction like μεγαλ’ αμαρτανειν as “to err greatly.” Leaving aside that “err” is not in current use (except in translations from Greek or Latin!), translation can conceal as much as it reveals. In this and comparable cases, it conceals the fact that μεγαλα is not an adverb (as you are well aware) but an inner accusative (as perhaps you are also aware). Smyth’s “to commit grave errors” is better, or “to make serious mistakes." The construction is the same as e.g. πολλὰ αμαρτανειν, to make lots of mistakes, as distinct from πολλαχως αμαρτανειν, to be wrong in all sorts of ways.
If any progress is to be made, the only productive route I can think of, if the fixation on translation is incurable, is for Tugodum to be asked if he sees any difference between use of the adjective and the adverb. Good luck.