Peculiar Word Order
Moon-Ryul Jung
moon at saint.soongsil.ac.kr
Sat Apr 24 22:20:41 EDT 1999
On 04/24/99, ""George Blaisdell" <maqhth at hotmail.com>" wrote:
> >From: "Moon"
>
> >Recently I encountered two sentences whose word order I could not
> >understand. Lk 7:40: ECW SOI TI EIPEIN ( I have something to tell
>
> you]
> >Heb 2:8b: NUN DE OUPW ORAMEN AUTWi TA PANTA hUPOTETAGMENA
> >(We are not yet seeing everything having been subjected to him]
> >
> >Logically speaking, I thought the object of ECW is TI
> >and the object of ORAMEN is TA PANTA.
>
> It is...
>
> >But the verbs and the objects are separated by
> >datives SOI and AUTWi, respectively. I wondered why they did not
> >write as ECW TI EIPEIN SOI. Similarly why not
> > NUN DE OUPW ORAMEN TA PANTA hUPOTETAGMENA AUTWi?
> >
> >Does ECW SOI TI EIPEIN intend to convey a similar thing as
> > "I have something to tell YOU", where YOU is stressed?
>
> Perhaps the key here is the principle of "enclosure" in Greek word
> order. ECW EIPEIN encloses SOI TI, thereby emphasizing it [SOI TI].
>
> ECW TI EIPEIN SOI would have ECW SOI enclosing TI EIPEIN, thus
> emphasizing TI EIPEIN. [and so on...]
>
> Likwise with AUTWi in Heb., which is enclosed by the whole sentence,
> being in the middle of it. Carl's chiastic observations are exactly
> on point....
>
> >When the sentence in question is SOI TI EIPEIN, I can understand it.
> >But when it is embedded as an object of a verb, I do not understand
> >what is going on in ECW SOI TI EIPEIN.
> >
> >I guess I am missing something about Greek word order.
>
> It is not fixed as in English, but has a fluidity that follows the
> thought process of its user, working outward from centers that are
> enclosed.
>
>
>
George, thanks for your comments. But is this principle of enclosure
well investigated and demonstrated sufficiently? I feel like it is too
orderly and too systematic for a human language.
Respectfully
Moon-Ryul Jung
Assistant Professor
Dept of Computer Science
Soongsil University
Seoul, Korea
>
> George Blaisdell
> Roslyn, WA
>
>
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