Yes, Paul, I think you are right on this one. thanks.
If you look at the order in which the vocab for chapter 3 is presented, it appears to be
adverbs 2. nouns 3. adjectives 4. verbs.
I THINK, that through chapter 3, Dickey wants the BASIC word order to be
adverb 2. subject. 3. object. 4. verb.
Now, beyond that, I still haven’t figured out what Dickey is trying to teach me about word order. I’ve only completed the exercises through page 33. And I still have lots of questions about stuff BEFORE that!
I will try to post my latest attempts from page 33 later this weekend, though it is a busy time for me right now. I really appreciate Dickey and this group so far! ἔρρωσθε!
An adverb that modifies a verb should generally be placed close to the verb. If the adverb is fronted for emphasis, the verb should generally follow not much later. I would emphasize “generally.”
It’s difficult to prescribe hard and fast rules for Greek word order (though there are some, e.g., certain connectives are always placed in the second slot in a clause). Dover’s book explores the motivating factors.
Dickey doesn’t give much guidance on word order, and I don’t think the solutions she gives in the appendix are necessarily to be taken as exclusive as far as word order is concerned.
This isn’t a μεν δε contrast. There is no contrast between the wise man and the house slave. The tension is between the wise man’s efforts to have his house slave taught and the house slave’s inability to learn, but this opposition doesn’t lend itself to a μεν δε contrast. If you delete μὲν it would be ok, but maybe, in addition, οὗτος δ’ οὐ δυνατὸς would be better.
This is not exactly how I pronounce Ancient Greek, but I like the way it sounds. It has helped me to internalize the sentence. I would like to hear this and other Dickey sentences recorded in other pronunciation schemes.
This doesn’t lend itself to a μεν δε contrast: “On the one hand, I just received the book; on the other, I’ll begin studying with it today.” There’s no contrast between just now and today, or between receiving and beginning. In any case, μεν and δε would have to follow immediately the words being contrasted. I’d suggest dropping μεν, but continuing to use δὲ as a connective between the two clauses.
ἄρξομαι would be better with a supplementary participle or a non-articular infinitive. Generally, it takes an accusative object of the subject being studied. Also, the dative alone can be used for an instrument, but here something additional is needed. Maybe σήμερον δὲ αὐτῷ χρώμενος/χρωμένη ἄρξομαι μελετᾶν [or μελετῶν/μελετῶσα] τὴν ἑλληνικὴν γλώττην.
ὦ χαῖρε, φίλτατε. ἐνθάδε δέ σε εὐρὼν, χαίρω ἔγωγε. ἔρρωσο!
Hi, Amplaos. Welcome to the group. I’m really happy to have you here because I am huge fan of all your creative Greek writing. I love your Greek Haikus and your Monty Python bits. And I’ve enjoyed our own L2 e-mail exchanges. And you’re a friend of Paul D’s. Did I get that right?
@Ηυλανδηρ.
That’s really helpful to me to see an L2 paraphrase of a Greek sentence. χάριν οὖν οἶδά σε.
αρχομαι takes a genitive noun (“begin something”). But when the complement is a verb (“begin doing something”) it generally takes an infinitive or a supplementary participle. This is in the vocabulary for Dickey’s Unit V.
ἄρτι ἐδέξαμην τὸ βιβλίον, σημέρον δὲ ἄρξομαι τὴν ἑλληνικὴν γλώσσαν μελετᾶν αὐτῷ χρώμενος – this is ok. I tried to put αὐτῷ closer to its referent.
I’m almost done with chapter 3. To internalize what I’ve learned so far, I have been using the weather thread to compose sentences which use only the Dickey vocab and constructions through chapter 3. This a.m. I wrote
I’m sure there are lots of mistakes in this sentence, but I THINK Dickey would approve of the word order.
I’d suggest using her exercises for consolidation. Weather vocabulary is too limited. An important part of her exercises consists of learning and using verbs and their complements.
She wouldn’t think much of ἡ γενναία ἕως, but the word order of the sentence is unexceptionable—unnuanced and “normal.” Word order and its subtleties come into their own when there’s more context and complexity.
But (τὰ) θηρία πολλάκις κακὰ πάσχει ὑπ’ ἀνθρώπων, which you say you “really like” without knowing why, has a feature that many Greek writers would have avoided as ugly and aesthetically offensive, one that should indeed make itself felt if you read the sentence aloud: the hiatus πάσχει ὑπ’ἀνθρώπων, easily avoidable by putting ὑπ’ἀνθρώπων before or after πολλάκις. That’s a stylistic matter that I guess Dickey hasn’t yet touched on. (But I trust she will.)
I’ve recently started Dickey and have just finished the questions for Chapter 3. This was my answer for #2:
θηρία πολλάκις ὑπ’ἀνθρώπων (ἔπαθε?)πάσχει κακά .
The English sentence is:
Wild animals often suffer bad things at the hands of humans.
I placed πολλάκις and κακά in their respective positions to avoid hiatus and used a gnomic aorist for πάσχω, as I think the statement called for it.
EDIT: After rereading Smyth, I realise the present of general truth is probably more appropriate. I believe though that if presented with just the Greek and the Gnomic Aorist was used, the translation would have been the same as the English sentence above.