OU X ALLA Y: Is X exclusive of Y all the time?

Moon-Ryul Jung moon at saint.soongsil.ac.kr
Thu Feb 1 23:20:22 EST 2001


Dear bgreekers,

My attempt to interpret 
Rom 6:14b OU GAR ESTE hUPO NOMON ALLA hUPO CARIN 
raised a question about the function of 
OU X ALLA Y.

The usual understanding of OU hUPO NOMON ALLA hUPO CARIN
is that "hUPO NOMON" and "hUPO CARIN" are exclusive of each other.
But does the form "OU X ALLA Y" always imply such an exclusion?

My intuition is that "ALLA Y" may be used to cancel some implication
of "OU X" which the speaker does not intend but which the hearer
might infer from "OU X". 

Assuming that it is not so different from English "not X but Y",
let me consider an example:

 Tom did not take the final exam, but he submitted an excellent
 term paper.

Here "submit an excellent term paper" is not the direct 
opposite to "not take the final exam". 

As another example, consider

" Tom did not very well in his courses, but did well in math".

Are my examples different from Rom 6:14b?

Moon
Moon-Ryul Jung
Associate Professor
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea
   



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