3.1334 Queries on slang and greek parsing; Isaac (105)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 30 Apr 90 17:27:18 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1334. Monday, 30 Apr 1990.


(1) Date: Sun, 29 Apr 90 19:43:36 EDT (30 lines)
From: David R. Sewell <dsew@uhura.cc.rochester.edu>
Subject: Faculty occupational slang?

(2) Date: Fri, 27 Apr 90 23:36:47 EDT (52 lines)
From: Harry Hahne <HAHNE@UTOREPAS>
Subject: Greek Parsing Program

(3) Date: Fri, 27 Apr 90 15:47 MDT (9 lines)
From: "DOV - DR. ART ST. GEORGE" <STGEORGE@UNMB>
Subject: ISAAC Access Via The Internet

(4) Date: Fri, 27 Apr 90 22:21 EDT (14 lines)
From: MERIZ@pittvms
Subject: ISAAC Phone Number

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 29 Apr 90 19:43:36 EDT
From: David R. Sewell <dsew@uhura.cc.rochester.edu>
Subject: Faculty occupational slang?

Students in my History of the English Language course are reading an
article on emergency room slang that came out a few years back in
_Language in Society_. It is full of all sorts of outrageously funny
and scandalously derogatory terms for patients who are particularly
helpless, demanding, or offensive; the thesis of the article is that
such slang serves both as a vehicle of occupational solidarity and as a
buffer against the powerful emotional demands such patients make on EMR
workers.

When I first read the article it occurred to me that university faculty
(in humanities departments at least) don't seem to have much in the way
of identifiable occupational slang, terms that only we would use and
understand in a particular way. I casually asked a number of colleagues
if they were aware of any special terms they used for types of students,
and came up with practically nothing. A student who habitually dozed in
class might be called a "sleeper," but that's hardly an imaginative
creation.

This time I thought I'd turn to a wider group of colleagues and ask the
same question. Do any of you use or know of slang terms faculty use for
students (or any other salient phenomenon of university life), terms not
borrowed from the general student-created pool of college slang? If we
as an occupational class are in fact deficient in this respect, do you
have any theories about why?

--I'll summarize and post findings of any e-mail response.

| David Sewell, English Dep't, University of Rochester, New York USA |
| dsew@uhura.cc.rochester.edu || dsew%uhura.cc.rochester.edu@uorvm |
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------52----
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 90 23:36:47 EDT
From: Harry Hahne <HAHNE@UTOREPAS>
Subject: Greek Parsing Program

I am interested in knowing what programs are available for teaching and
drilling students on parsing Greek words. I teach biblical Greek and
would like a program that a student could use for practicing parsing.
The features that I would like ideally are:

1. Ability to limit forms presented to the student's current level of
instruction (e.g. if they only know present and imperfect, they
should only be drilled on these forms).
2. Internal record keeping on the forms the student has difficulty
with so these can be drilled more often.
3. Simple user interface, so the student is not penalized for typing
errors. It is a real barrier to learning when a student has to
transliterate on the keyboard. With some programs the frustration
of the user interface can reduce the motivation of the student and
keep him/her from using the program.
4. If the student does not get the correct anser, the program should
graphically point out the characteristics of the word that indicate
the correct parsing.
5. Ability to parse any word the student enters. This would allow the
student to get an interactive parsing of any word in a text that is
causing difficulty when reading. If it is dictionary based it
should include as a minimum both the New Testament and the
Septuagint. Ideally it should be rule based so any form for any
text could be used.
6. Proper display of Greek on the screen, for any graphics card.
7. It should run on any IBM compatible, since the majority of students
have (and can afford) these machines rather than Macs, at least
here in Canada.

I have used MEMCARDS for both Greek and Hebrew vocabulary drilling and
have found students really like it and benefit from it. It has features
1,2,3,6,7 but is limited to vocubulary drills. I would like the same
kind of program, but based on parsing and not just word meaning.

I may be developing such a program myself, but I would at least like to
know what is out there and possibly build on the work of others.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Harry Hahne
Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

(3) --------------------------------------------------------------9----
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 90 15:47 MDT
From: "DOV - DR. ART ST. GEORGE" <STGEORGE@UNMB>
Subject: ISAAC Access Via The Internet

For the information of Humanist readers, if you have access to a
full-screen device or can do TN3270 TELNET, ISAAC is accessible
to the Internet. TELNET to 128.95.19.2 and follow instructions. The
instructions take you through a registration procedure which then
allows you to use ISAAC interactively.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 90 22:21 EDT
From: MERIZ@pittvms
Subject: ISAAC Phone Number

As a new member of ISAAC, I can assure Jim S. that ISAAC is indeed
"still up and running". The current numbers are as follows:

U.S.A. incl. Puerto Rico 1 800 237 5551
Canada 1 800 537 1705
Seattle 543 3761

-Diana T. Meriz
meriz@pittvms.bitnet