TIS and TIS

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Sun Sep 8 06:32:27 EDT 2002


> >1 Cor 14:16 TI LEGEIS OUK OIDEN -what(ever) you are saying, he doesn't
> >know/understand.
>
> I think I would prefer to understand TI in these constructions as the
> interrogative pronoun rather than as an indefinite pronoun. It's true that
> older Classical Greek used hO TI, the relative interrogative,
> more commonly
> than the straightforward interrogative pronoun in indirect questions, but
> the interrogative pronoun was always an option and I think that's what we
> have here.
>

Thanks for the correction, Carl. Yes, it is better and certainly normal to
analyze these as interrogatives. I am not sure why I was thinking of the
indefinite, maybe because of the uncertainty involved and the possibility of
translating it: "Any (word/thing) you say, he will not understand it". I
don't know if that is indeed possible.

However, this leads me to the question of whether the interrogative TIS and
indefinite TIS are always easy to distinguish. Apart from accents the forms
are the same. Do these accents represent a different intonation or stress in
ancient Greek or is the distinction between them purely a matter of syntax
and semantics, rather than phonology and morphology? Normally the
interrogative is used substantively, but not always. And the indefinite can
also be used substantively, although not so commonly. Normally the
interrogative is in the beginning of its clause, but the indefinite can also
be in that position.

What about places like
Mt 10:11: EXETASATE TIS EN AUTHi AXIOS ESTIN
 - make enquiries as to who in it is worthy? or - if there is a worthy
person in it?
Would the second option need an EI or (E)AN in Greek?
Mt 7:9: TIS ESTIN EX hUMWN ANQRWPOS
-  what person is there among you, or - is there any person among you...
1 Cor 10:31: EITE OUN ESQIETE EITE PINETE EITE TI POIEITE
 - so whether you eat or drink or what(ever) you do
Rom 8:24: hO GAR BLEPEI TIS ELPIZEI
 - who hopes for what he sees? or - does anyone hope for what he sees?

The Friberg tagging system has marked the first two as interrogative, the
third as indefinite, the fourth as undecided between the two options.

Thanks,
Iver Larsen




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