[B-Greek] Pronouns in discourse
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Sat Mar 29 01:58:33 EST 2003
> > Apart from the misleading paragraph breaks and section titles in the UBS
> > text and most English translations, the problem is caused by a lack of
> > familiarity with Greek discourse, especially introducing and tracking
> > participants. Jesus is the main character, and the main
> character is usually
> > in the Greek NT referred to by a pronoun.
>
> I'd be interested to read more about pronoun usage in discourse. Can Iver
> or anybody supply some references?
The best treatment I know of is found in chapters 8 and 9 of
Stephen H. Levinsohn (2000), DISCOURSE FEATURES OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK.
Second Edition. SIL: Dallas. (Library of Congress Catalog No. 00-101266
ISBN: 1-55671-093-3)
Levinsohn uses VIP for "very important participant". The following is a
quote from chapter 8.3:
"Of most significance for the topic of this chapter, however, is the
tendency for references to the VIP to be *minimal*, once he or she has been
activated.
In the Gospels, Jesus is the global VIP. If we take the UBS paragraphing as
an indication of the beginning of new narrative units, the norm there is for
there to be no overt reference to Jesus (except in genitives absolute, where
an independent pronoun is used), even when Jesus was not the subject of the
previous clause. In other words, default encoding for the global VIP as
subject, when he was in a non-subject role in the previous clause, is *no
overt reference*."
(Levinsohn is NOT saying that the UBS paragraphing always is correct. He
uses it here for the sake of convenience.)
In the case of John 8:12-59 there are two VIPs, Jesus and his opponents, but
Jesus is the dominant participant. Those who came to believe in Jesus in v.
30-31 would be a minor participant. The rest of the crowd and the disciples
are props, i.e. they are present without doing anything. Usually the
disciples are not referred to at all when they are props (contrary to
English discourse patterns.)
If you are interested, it is not difficult to do your own participant
analysis. You take a large piece of paper and make a big chart. The rows
will be the verse numbers in order to follow the progression of the story.
The columns can be marked by the various participants, one column for each
participant. Inside the chart, you note down how each participant is (1)
first introduced) and (2) referred to after having been introduced.
Best wishes,
Iver Larsen
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