On conjunctions

Barry Hofstetter nebarry at earthlink.net
Thu Dec 5 08:53:49 EST 2002



----- Original Message -----
From: "José Antonio Septién" <jaseptien at terra.com.mx>
To: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2002 2:49 AM
Subject: [b-greek] On conjunctions


> Dear friends,
>
> Some grammarians classify some conjunctions as Superordinating  and
> Hyperordinating. But I don't find this classification in none of the
> well-known grammars.

I have been away (visiting sunny Montana) for nearly 2 weeks, and am going
through old email.  Allow me quickly to comment on this.

Like the philosophers of Mars Hill, who had nothing else to do but listen to the
latest gossip, it seems that some overly clever grammarians have nothing else to
do but create grammatical categories to describe what would better be explained
by exegetical or hermeneutical principles.  The superordinating conjunction is a
good example: in the reference that Wayne supplied on Rom 8:9, the author of the
page describes it as connecting an inferior with a superior thought, and then
goes on to define this allegedly grammatical usage with a theological
explanation.  From a grammatical/linguistics perspective, I find this a bit
suspect.  Occam's razor surely applies in grammar -- this is simply the
adversative usage of DE, which must be determined contextually.  Whether it
actually connects a superior with an inferior thought in this context must be
determined on other grounds.

This similar to the so-called 5 vs. 8 case debate.  If we define cases as the
endings which nouns and adjectives take, it is clear how many are normally used
in Greek of the Koine period.  We must then speak of how those cases are
actually used.  One may then speak of the locative use of the dative, or the
ablatival use of the genitive, but it's still the same case.  I have always felt
that introducing such usages as separate grammatical categories is unnecessarily
confusing to the student, particularly those who have not had prior experience
with Latin.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te...
    -- Augustine, Confessions 1:1

http://home.earthlink.net/~nebarry




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