Because it is used all the time in lexicography to mean exactly the same thing I use it to mean. The particular meaning becomes part of the lexicon. It becomes lexicalized. I really wish you would stop confusing your own ignorance for my tendentiousness.
One of the central reasons cognitive semantics exists is
in contrast to the view which dominated much earlier discussion of lexicology and linguistics and is behind the concept "lexicalized".
You state that are familiar cognitive semantics. Yet cognitive semantics rejects the idea of a "lexicon" (as, with cognitive linguistics in general, perhaps
the most fundamental idea is the lexico-grammatical contiuum). The word "lexicalized" largely reflexs a compositional view of language. When it is used in cognitive semantics, it is not used to mean when "a particular meaning becomes part of the lexicon" (how could it, when from the start this idea of a distinct lexicon and lexical entries is viewed as thoroughly inadequate and flawed?). Phrases may be "lexicalized", or the meaning becomes conventionalized via
grammatical AND lexical usage, etc. Take e.g., the word "drive". One might argue that "drive" as in "to drive a car" is an example of lexicalization. But what about the following:
She's driving me crazy
This is driving me up the wall
My kids are going to drive me to drink
Has the sense of "drive" meaning "to do something which affects another such that the result is a restricted range of mental and emotional states, but not one specific such state"? It's not
lexicalized, because it depends upon a particular schema which is greater than any lexeme, but cannot simply be relegated to some "grammar" component.
No, the Hebrew word also only meant "messenger." The "angel" sense developed over time and then did the same within the Jewish-Greek lexicon.
Then you are in disagreement with Geeraerts.
Are you really that insecure that you need to pretend that I'm ignorant of the Greek so you can feel better about your own capacities with the language?
I didn't say you weren't competent. You stated:
So your concern is only with an irrelevant portion of a translation I drew from the New English Translation of the Septuagint?
You could be the foremost authority on Greek in the world, but if you rely on a translation to make your argument, and further rely only on the translation and historical analysis to make your argument rather than offer an analysis of what the Greek constructions
means (via linguistic analysis; see below), then it doesn't matter how competent you are.
There's nothing special in the transition from Greek to Hebrew.
There absolutely is. One has only to compare translations of Greek into Latin to see this. Both Latin and Greek use cases. Both use a very similar grammatical construal of number, gender, person, etc. So while things like the article pose a problem, this is nothing compared to languages (like Hebrew) which use an entirely different alignment system, person indicator, and even so basic a matter of time/tense.
Translation from Greek or to Greek has to deal with the radical underdetermination of the lexemes relative to use, as well as the comparatively high use of grammatical devices in semantic construal.
Do you want to try to restate it in a way that makes sense, or are you just going to quietly move on?
My apologies. I thought it would be clear given your first set of pointed responses, which included:
Yes, I've read it, along with every other publication on the phrase from the last 150 years. While this pedantic post of yours may give you an opportunity to wax philological in front of everyone, basically all you've done is tell me you disagree with two largely insignificant translation discussions I cited from other scholars.
The paper you stated you read along with every other publication on the phrase from the last 150 years (quite a lot) concerns the types of phrases and the problems with translation, ambiguity, etc., I was referring to (in addition, that is, to the problems with Greek in particular here). Also, I already stated that saying
dynamis is somehow a more adequate translation than the construction in Deut. 4 is to say one inadequate lexeme is somehow better than another just as inadequate. Neither mean "hosts", and both have within their conceptual domain the ideas necessary for the constructions used to convey what is needed.
And here you quote texts in an effort to say absolutely nothing of any relevance to this discussion. We're all tremendously impressed with how well read you are, but we would all appreciate it if you would actually address the points of my argument.
One text, actually. But no matter. Your argument, from beginning to end, relies on ideas of translation and what this involves which include references to a particular understanding of languages (as have your posts). You talk about "idiomatic Greek" and using this as a yardstick to judge the faithfulness of translation, and consistently refer to the way in which your (or another's) rendering of the Greek either alters the meaning or focuses the "reader toward the desired understanding". At no time do you ever analyze the Greek from a construction grammar (or cognitive semantics) point of view. In fact, short of the use of providing English translations and the connotations inherent in them, you don't analyze the Greek at all. As I said to begin with, I don't know enough Hebrew to use my own knowledge to argue whether or not you captured some particular nuance of the Hebrew, still less if this is relevant. But Greek I do know. And as your argument systematically ignores, glosses over, or manipulates (unintentionally) the Greek to "influence the reader", your approach to translation and language
period becomes extremely important.
dynamis absolutely can mean "host,"
"in the study of Greek lexicography an examination of the Greek expressions for
meaning provides little or no insight, since these are also numerous and almost equally nebulous in significance, e.g.,
dynamis"
p. 1 of
Lexical Semantics of the Greek New Testament. The second chapter makes this even more clear, and includes "the most important factor in decoding a text is the context (both linguistic and non-linguistic)." As you included
nothing concerning the linguistic context in your entire paper, even outside of cognitive semantics we see this is problematic.
I don't understand why you think you are fooling anyone by so flagrantly ignoring the evidence I have provided
Showing that a word
can mean something and showing that it
does are two very different things. This is why I have repeatedly talked about cognitive linguistics, and responded to your claim to be familiar with cognitive semantics with suprise. Because what you do is similar to saying "'drive' means to take somebody in a car somewhere" and then assert that this means we should interpret "driving me up the wall" in terms of vertical motion up a wall in a motor vehicle. I have explained why your analysis (analyses, actually, but here I mean of
kosmos) is misleading to say the least. In return, you have simply said "it can mean that" and refused to either deal with what I have said about the construction, or about linguistics, or about language, other than (mainly) to belittle or insult me. Which I understand (who wants to be told that their work is flawed by an outsider to the field?), but it doesn't make you correct.
Your response to my argument about the grammatical construction was:
But you have no verb, and it is the etymological fallacy to insist that because kosmos comes originally from a verbal root, we must import that “verbal notion” into our understanding of the construction.
Do you know what a "subjective genitive" (or an objective, or even a plenary or ambiguious mixture of both) construction is? And why etymology is so completely irrelevant here? Let's switch to English for clarity:
The doctor examined my elbow.
She elbowed her way through the crowd.
The MMA fighter wouldn't stop the repeated elbowing of his opponent.
The love of power is inherent in all.
The last example especially is the type of genitive construction I'm referring to. The "verbal aspect" of love (or elbow) has absolutely
nothing to do with etymology. Lots and lots of words have both noun-like and verb-like forms. All that matters is whether or not a word can involve a verbal-like conceptualization (i.e., an atemporally conceived action, similar to an infinitive). The Greek
kosmos clearly does, as it has a matching verb. Etymology couldn't matter less.
Nor have you even attempted to fit the words within their context.
I did, actually. You insist on reading into these arguments I never made.
Which, as I have shown, and you have ignored, really has no bearing on my claims.
No, you didn't. You showed that you continue to misunderstand "etymology" and have added to this a misunderstanding of a very basic construction in Greek grammar.
I prefer "friend," not "colleague/critic,"
Fair enough.
Mike's concerns with my paper are limited to a methodological choice that has nothing to do with any of your concerns
Which is why I referred to him. Because it addresses a side to your argument I cannot adequately evaluate as far as I'm concerned, even if I disagree.
You appear not to have read much of anything I've written, much less have understood it.
The feeling is mutual.