QUESTIONS INTRODUCED BY OU OR MH

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Sep 2 12:32:27 EDT 2002


At 10:45 PM +1000 9/2/02, B. Ward Powers wrote:
>Fellow b-greekers all:
>
>I have a kind of standard expectation that questions introduced by OU are
>expecting a "yes" answer, and those introduced by MH are expecting a "no"
>answer (e.g. 1 Cor 9:1, 8, 9, 12, 13).
>
>And, moreover, that when these two negatives are used together, it is in
>the order OU MH; that this expression is usually followed by the
>subjunctive (though not always); and that it indicates an emphatic negative.
>
>The verses 1 Cor 9:4 and 9:5 each commence with MH OUK ECOMEN EXOUSIAN, and
>each has the expectation (it seems to me) of a positive answer, "Yes, you
>do have the right ..."

Smyth 2651 d  OU after MH or ARA MH belongs to a single word, not to the
sentence (P. Men. 89c, Lys. 213 d).

AT Robertson, _New Short Grammar of the GNT_ 470 (g) " ... In a question
like MH OUK ECOMEN? (1 Cor 9:4) MH is the negative of the question and OUK
of ECOMEN."
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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