Definiteness of Anarthrous Nouns in Prepositional Phrases

Mike Sangrey mike at sojurn.lns.pa.us
Tue Jul 25 09:52:24 EDT 2000



Jay Adkins <JAdkins264 at aol.com> said:
> While I cannot distinguish the number of definite nouns verses
> indefinite  nouns, using Gramcord to search the use of a singular noun
> directly  preceded by a preposition I had the following results.

> 1. with article: 2210   54.2%
> 2. w/o article:  1865   45.7%

> If you have enough spare time, I would be glad to send you the list of
>  verses so that you may determine which are definite nouns.  :-) 

Just a quick note of two cents worth:

The definiteness (or not) of nouns is not just determined by coupling the 
presence of the article with the lexical definiteness of the noun.  One must 
also determine whether the substantive is `focal' in the context.


See Levinsohn, "Discourse features of the Greek New Testament."
-- 
Mike Sangrey
mike at sojurn.lns.pa.us
Landisburg, Pa.
       Every Christian library should have a plaque which states:
              "There is one book which explains all these."





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