identifying sentences

c stirling bartholomew cc.constantine at worldnet.att.net
Wed Aug 21 16:49:47 EDT 2002


on 8/21/02 11:08 AM, c stirling bartholomew wrote:



>early on c stirling bartholomew wrote:
> 
>>> MATT. 26:16 KAI APO TOTE EZHTEI EUKAIRIAN hINA AUTON PARADWi.
>>> MATT. 26:17 THi DE PRWTHi TWN AZUMWN PROSHLQON hOI MAQHTAI TWi IHSOU
>>> LEGONTES: POU QELEIS hETOIMASWMEN SOI FAGEIN TO PASCA;
>>> 
>>> I would suggest that THi DE PRWTHi falls on a major discourse boundary which
>>> is indicated most clearly by the time reference. This would rule out seeing
>>> it as a continuation of the "sentence" ending with  hINA AUTON PARADWi.

> on 8/21/02 10:37 AM, Trevor Peterson wrote:
>> 
>> Am I missing something really obvious, or isn't DE inexplicable if we don't
>> start a new clause in v. 17? It seems like the presence of the conjunction
>> prevents us from taking the beginning of v. 17 as a continuation of the
>> clause
>> in v. 16.
>> 
>> Trevor Peterson
>> CUA/Semitics

>CSB replied> 
> Trevor,
> 
> I think DE does in this case mark a new clause, but clauses can be members
> of higher level constituents (e.g. a clause or a "sentence"). In this
> particular case the temporal orienter THi DE PRWTHi TWN AZUMWN at the
> beginning of the new paragraph is a clear indication that there is a break
> in the narrative at this point. I never rely on particles alone to identify
> a discourse boundary. The semantic boundary is reinforced by the use of
> particles but the IMHO the particles alone don't solve the problem.

Trevor,

S. Levinsohn* has an extensive discussion of DE/KAI in narrative of
Matt/Luke-Acts. He points out that DE always introduces a "new step or
development in the author's argument or story."(page 72) He also seems to
take for granted that DE invariably starts a new sentence in narrative, but
this gets us back to the orignal problem of defining a sentence. So it would
appear that Levinsohn agrees with you, that DE alone in this context is
enough to answer the question raised.

I am not going to argue with Levinsohn about this. He has done a lot of
homework on this and he is worth consulting if you have some time.

Clay

*pp. 69-93, Levinsohn, Stephen Discourse Features of New Testament Greek,2nd
Ed.
 SIL2000.



--  
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062





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