Brief Review of Runge's A Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament

I posted my review on Amazon this morning and thought I'd add it here. It is of Runge's excellent work on Greek discourse. I recommend it to you.

His website is a resource in itself.

_______

TThough the book covers a fair bit of ground, its take-home value for me is two fold.

First, the opening chapter provides a set of controlling principles for discourse study. These are excellent for their simplicity. They include: "choice implies meaning," distinguishing "semantic meaning versus pragmatic effect," understanding "default versus marked framework," and recognizing "prominence and contrast." Chapter one will provide any student of Greek with basic linguistic wisdom. It is unusual for its depth and simplicity--a must read.

Second, Runge organizes the markedness of words used to connect propositions. His grasp of discourse is evident when he comes to presenting the data. These connecting words are assigned characteristics rather than placed in lists (explicitly in contrast to Wallace on this front). Each connecting word (8 total plus asyndeton) is considered in terms of continuity, discontinuity, correlation, forward-pointing, and additional semantic constraints. Runge compiles this in simple chart form as he moves along. This is gold for evaluating discourse and provides insight when tracing the argument of the author.

Both of the above strengths are found in Part 1, which Runge aptly calls 'Foundations.' The more rigorous student will continue to discover an accessible resource as Runge builds from here in the remainder of the book. I highly recommend his work.