emphasis#2

Rick Duggin rduggin at juno.com
Wed Nov 14 12:21:42 EST 2001


Many thanks to Dennis Hukel, Jeff Smelser, Iver Larsen, and 
Carl Conrad for their responses (some on list, some off ) to 
my question about emphasis.  

May I ask a corollary before returning to my usual lurking
mode?

Concerning emphasis and word order, A.T.Robertson says:
"This is one of the ruling ideas in the order of words.   This
emphasis may be at the end as well as at the beginning of 
the sentence, or even in the middle in case of antithesis.   
The emphasis consists in removing a word from its usual position 
to an unusual one."    He provides several illustrations.
(Grammar, 147f.)      

ATR goes on to explain that emphasis alone does not explain 
every unusual order of words in a Greek sentence (419,420), 
and, as Carl pointed out, ATR mentions the large amount of 
personal liberty that was exercised in the trajection of words.

If I am not misunderstanding ATR, he differs rather 
emphatically (pardon the pun) with modern scholarship on
this issue.    Of course, I readily acknowledge that ATR may
be the one in error, but I'm wondering:   was ATR's position 
once the generally accepted position?    In any case, what 
brought about the change of view?   And how can the interested
observer who is NOT a Greek scholar know which view is
right?    Is it a matter of standing on the shoulders of giants
and getting a better view?

Please understand that I'm not quibbling w. anyone's answer 
to my question; I suspect that Dennis Hukel is correct in saying
that context must determine emphasis.    I don't lose any sleep
over the disagreement between scholars, but I'm curious about 
this rather common problem where one scholar dogmatically 
affirms a view that another scholar denies.

Thanks again for your help.

Rick Duggin
Murfreesboro, TN

    
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