The Greek Verbal Network Viewed from a Probabilistic Standpoint 9 functional grammar, particularly Halliday’s systemic functional grammar, have shown the descriptive power and flexibility of a functional linguistic approach for analyzing the Greek language of the New Testament 29. It is interesting to note that Halliday, unlike Chomsky, has never dismissed the statistical approach to linguistic investigation. On the contrary, he states: It has always seemed to me, ever since I first tried to become a gramma- rian, that grammar was a subject with too much theory and too little data 30. In a number of recent studies, Halliday has begun to investigate the proba- bilistic nature of grammar, and how the relative frequency of grammatical ele- ments in a corpus of naturally occurring language can be incorporated into the paradigmatic system networks that form the basis of systemic linguistics 31. Data Retrieval Problems Based on Generative Syntax», in W. Vandemeghe and M. Van de Velde (eds.), Bedeutung, Sprechakte und Texte: Akten des 13. Linguistischen Kolloquiums, II (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1979); idem, Syntax und Exegese: Eine generative Theorie der griechischen Syntax und ihr Beitrag zur Auslegung des Neuen Testaments, dar- gestellt an 2. Korinther 5.2f und Römer 3.21-26 (Beiträge zur biblischen Exegese und Theologie, 13; Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1979); J.P. Louw, Semantics of New Testament Greek (Philadelphia: Fortress Press; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982); R.A. Young, Intermediate New Testament Greek: A Linguistic and Exegetical Approach (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1994); M.W. Palmer, Levels of Constituent Structure in New Testament Greek (SBG, 4; New York: Peter Lang, 1995). 29 For example, see Porter, Verbal Aspect; idem, Idioms of the Greek New Testament (BLG, 2; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 2nd edn, 1994); J.T. Reed, A Discourse Analysis of Philippians: Method and Rhetoric in the Debate over Literary Integrity (JSNTSup, 136; SNTG, 3; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997); G. Martín-Asensio, «Hallidayan Functional Grammar as Heir to New Testament Rhetorical Criticism», in S.E. Porter and D.L. Stamps (eds.), The Rhetorical Interpretation of Scripture: Essays from the 1996 Malibu Conference (JSNTSup, 180; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. 84-107; idem, «Foregrounding and its Relevance for Interpretation and Translation, with Acts 27 as a Case Study», in S.E. Porter and R.S. Hess (eds.), Translating the Bible: Problems and Prospects (JSNTSup, 173; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. 189-223; idem, Transitivity-Based Foregrounding in the Acts of the Apostles: A Functional-Grammatical Approach to the Lukan Perspective (JSNTSup, 202; SNTG, 8; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000); and various essays in Porter and Reed (eds.), Discourse Analysis and the New Testament. 30 M.A.K. Halliday, «Language as System and Language as Instance: The Corpus as a Theoretical Construct», in Svartvik (ed.), Directions in Corpus Linguistics, pp. 61-77, quotation p. 61. 31 See Halliday, «Language as System and Language as Instance»; idem, «Towards Probabilistic Interpretations», in E. Ventola (ed.), Functional and Systemic Linguistics: Approaches and Uses (Trends in Linguistics, 55; Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1991), pp. 39-61; idem, «Corpus Studies and Probabilistic Grammar», in Aijmer and Altenberg (eds.), English Corpus Linguistics, pp. 30-43; idem, «Quantitative Studies and Probabilities in Grammar», in M. Hoey (ed.), Data, Description, Discourse: Papers on the English Language in Honour of John McH. Sinclair (London: HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 1- 25; idem and Z.L. James, «A Quantitative Study of Polarity and Primary Tense in the English Finite Clause», in J.M. Sinclair, M. Hoey and G. Fox (eds.), Techniques in Description: Spoken and Written Discourse (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 32-66.