Discourse Analysis Software from Logos

Posted by Tommy

September 29, 2008

Good translations require a good understanding of how languages work. This requires more than just knowing a list of words and grammatical structures; it requires an understanding of why an author chooses this structure instead of that one. It requires an understanding of linguistic context, of the rules of discourse, of conventions of speech and genre. The tools and techniques by which exegetes can study these factors is called Discourse Analysis.

For a great introduction to Discourse Analysis, as well as other topics in linguistics and their impact on biblical studies, check out Cotterell’s Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation. Young’s Intermediate New Testament Greek also includes a wonderful introduction to Discourse Analysis, and includes several different methods for diagramming.

But the purpose of this post is to point out some software by Logos. First, there is a semantic/discourse diagramming feature bundled into Scholar’s Library (which looks very nice; Bibleworks includes grammatical diagramming, but not discourse diagrams). Check that out here. Additionally, they are now offering a complete discourse analysis of the New Testament. Check out the announcement, complete with screenshots and a video, here.