Koine Greek: Studies in Greek Language & Linguistics

SBL2025 Prepositions, Constructions & Force Dynamics In November, we (Rachel and Michael Aubrey) presented the most recent piece of the ongoing research on Greek prepositions at SBL 2025 in Boston. Our paper was titled: Force Dynamics, Image Schemas,…

In November, Rachel & Mike Aubrey presented ongoing research on Greek prepositions at SBL 2025 in Boston.

Today they're making the notes & slides available for your reading pleasure. Below are the details of our presentation, our slides, and then the abstract.

#linguistics #biblicalgreek

SBL2025 Prepositions, Constructions & Force Dynamics In November, we (Rachel and Michael Aubrey) presented the most recent piece of the ongoing research on Greek prepositions at SBL 2025 in Boston. Our paper was titled: Force Dynamics, Image Schemas, and Constructional Polysemy in Prepositions: ἐπί and κατά in Postclassical Greek. Today we are making our notes and slides available from our SBL paper for your reading pleasure. Below are the details of our presentation, our slides, and then the abstract.

SBL2025 Prepositions, Constructions & Force Dynamics

In November, we (Rachel and Michael Aubrey) presented the most recent piece of the ongoing research on Greek prepositions at SBL 2025 in Boston. Our paper was titled: Force Dynamics, Image Schemas, and Constructional Polysemy in Prepositions:…

We've got a cover and we're racing to get our final adjustments to the body finished in the next 10 days!

#linguistics #biblicalgreek

Book: The Life Cycles of Counterfactuals in the History of Greek Ezra la Roi's work on various domains of modality (conditionals, insubordination, counterfactuals, and more) in Ancient Greek has been pretty prolific over the past number of years and it is exciting to see his new monograph, The Life Cycles of Counterfactuals in the History of Greek published this past year (2025)—not the least because I am also currently reading Leonard Talmy's (2021) …

Book: The Life Cycles of Counterfactuals in the History of Greek

Ezra la Roi's work on various domains of modality (conditionals, insubordination, counterfactuals, and more) in Ancient Greek has been pretty prolific over the past number of years and it is exciting to see his new monograph, The…

Relevance Theory is not Cognitive Linguistics

Cognitive Linguistics has grown in popularity in biblical studies. There's much to praise about that. Biblical interpretation requires attention first and foremost to grammar. Basil of Caesarea writes, ούδεμίαν άδιερεύνητον. . . χρήναι καταλιμπάνειν…

Force dynamics and Greek prepositions This picture is relevant. We promise. Have you ever stopped to consider how we use prepositions in language? Sometimes prepositions play unexpected roles. The English preposition on, for example, helps you talk about “putting a book on a shelf” or “hanging a picture on the wall”, and that despite the fact that shelves are horizontal and walls are vertical. The word “on” can do a lot more:

Force dynamics and Greek prepositions

This picture is relevant. We promise. Have you ever stopped to consider how we use prepositions in language? Sometimes prepositions play unexpected roles. The English preposition on, for example, helps you talk about “putting a book on a shelf” or “hanging a…

Verbal Aspect Theory and the Prohibitions in the Greek New Testament

Thanks!

Hi @verbingnouns.bsky.social could we be added to your linguistics feed?

We just posted about Julia Falks monograph on women in the LSA in the early 20th century.

Cheers!

(via @mikeaubrey.bsky.social)

Edith Claflin, the Greek linguist you’ve never heard of Over the past year, I’ve been off-and-on reading Julia Falk’s Women, Language and Linguistics: Three American Stories from the First Half of the Twentieth Century. It’s a superb b…

Edith Claflin's work on voice and aspect in Greek and Latin should have been part of the linguistics foundation we all have been building on, yet you rarely find her cited.
#linguistics #biblicalgreek

Academic Forum: The Source-Path-Goal Schema in Bible Translation We, Rachel and Michael Aubrey, are giving an academic forum at Dallas International University on Thursday, July 31⋅12:30 – 1:20pm CDT. Title: Greek & Hebrew Prepositions and the Source-Path-Goal Schema in Bible Translation Abstract: What do constructions like "from strength to strength", "from glory to glory", or "from faith to faith" mean? Come explore their cognitive basis. The SOURCE-PATH-GOAL (SPG) image schema constitutes a common meaning structure across languages that is grounded in our shared embodied human experience (Lakoff 1987, Hampe and Grady 2005).

Academic Forum: The Source-Path-Goal Schema in Bible Translation

We, Rachel and Michael Aubrey, are giving an academic forum at Dallas International University on Thursday, July 31⋅12:30 – 1:20pm CDT. Title: Greek & Hebrew Prepositions and the Source-Path-Goal Schema in Bible Translation Abstract:…

Is the Greek grammar of Matthew 1:25 consistent with the perpetual virginity of Mary?

"Matthew 1:25 says nothing about whether Joseph and Mary had conjugal relations."

Is this true? No. It's not.

MA Degree in Biblical Languages and Linguistics Dallas International University (DIU) has announced their new masters degree program that combines the biblical languages and linguistics in one place: MA in Biblical Languages and Linguistics.

Dallas International University (DIU) has announced their new masters degree program that combines the biblical languages and linguistics in one place: MA in Biblical Languages and Linguistics. #biblicalgreek #biblicalhebrew

I cannot believe how hard it is to find ἀνά meaning 'up' in postclassical Greek.

Things have been really quiet lately at Koine-Greek.com, because ... reasons. I'll talk about those soon. But I am working on some new pedagogy material for teaching (and learning) Greek prepositions. #biblicalgreek

Metaphors used in SOURCE-PATH-GOAL Constructions:
PURPOSES ARE DESTINATIONS
ἄρτον [ἐξ οὐρανοῦ] ἔδωκας αὐτοῖς [εἰςσιτοδοτείαν αὐτῶν]You gave them bread [from heaven][for their famine] (Esdr B 19:15)
#biblicalgreek
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Metaphors used in SOURCE-PATH-GOAL Constructions:
CAUSES ARE SOURCES
ὁ φεύγων [ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ φόβου]ἐνπεσεῖται [εἰς τὸν βόθυνον]
He who flees [from the face of fear] willfall [into the pit] (Jer 31:44).
#biblicalgreek
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This is basically out sentiment. Some of the replies we received:

Yesterday, I posted an announcement on Twitter that I was no longer going to be using twitter for sharing Koine-Greek.com stuff and that everyone could either find us on FB or here on Blusky. Man, people were not happy with that.

Greek prepositions as conventional patterns When we talk about the semantics of prepositional phrases, we are talking about a specific kind of conventionalized pattern. Conventional patterns are arbitrary in the sense that they are not predictable from one language to another. But in another way, they are nevertheless motivated (Sweetser 1990). There is a reason they occur as they do. Basic cognitive processes influence how different prepositions extend from spatial meanings to more abstract ones.

Greek prepositions as conventional patterns

When we talk about the semantics of prepositional phrases, we are talking about a specific kind of conventionalized pattern. Conventional patterns are arbitrary in the sense that they are not predictable from one language to another. But in another way,…

Carl Conrad passed away 2/20/25 Jonathan Robie contacted me this morning to let me know that yesterday Carl Conrad passed away. There won't be a memorial service, but if you have an memories or tributes to Carl, there is a forum thread at B-Greek dedicated to his memory. I encourage you to share any impact he had on your Greek education there. Tributes to Carl Conrad…

Carl Conrad passed away 2/20/25

Jonathan Robie contacted me this morning to let me know that yesterday Carl Conrad passed away. There won't be a memorial service, but if you have an memories or tributes to Carl, there is a forum thread at B-Greek dedicated to his memory. I encourage you to share…

Yes! This is exactly the solution.

No. You can't. And you can't do it with ὑπέρ either.

Our Greek dictionaries, with their glosses, suggest that the paraphrases are the meaning of the preposition. But think about how ridiculous that is. Can you recreate the meaning of the English preposition 'over' from these glosses???

● Mary held the flashlight over her head (=above her head). ● The mountain towered over the village (= higher than the village). ● The bus drove us over the border (=across the border). ● The vulture flew over the desert (=above and across the desert). ● He lives over the hill from me (=beyond the hill). ● He is over a hundred years old (=more than a hundred years old). ● I prefer the green shirt over the blue one (= compared to the blue one). ● Oliver grew puzzled over the chess problem (=because of the chess problem). ● They quarreled over the cost of dinner (=about and because of the cost of dinner).

All of these prepositional phrases have non-'over' paraphrases.

● Mary held the flashlight over her head. ● The mountain towered over the village. ● The bus drove us over the border. ● The vulture flew over the desert. ● He lives over the hill from me. ● He is over a hundred years old. ● I prefer the green shirt over the blue one. ● Oliver grew puzzled over the chess problem. ● They quarreled over the cost of dinner.

But let's talk about English 'over'. All of these are examples of English 'over' usage, both spatial and abstract.

We could repeat this for basically every Greek prepositions.
#biblicalgreek thread.
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