[B-Greek] ...QEN

Mike Sangrey msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Thu Nov 27 09:55:59 EST 2003


On Wed, 2003-11-26 at 16:12, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
> At 12:47 PM -0800 11/26/03, Steve Raine wrote:
<snip>
> >Not sure what to do with EMPROSQEN.
> 
> It's "from in front" = "in front of"; Greek may at times express a
> perspective on relative spatial location that seems strange to
> English-speakers: we English-speakers tend (I think) to think of these
> spatial relational terms generally as "in the direction of" or "toward" a
> point in space or thing; Greek,on the other hand, often seems to conceive
> of such indicators as marking a point nearer or farther AWAY from its
> spatial referent, so that EMPROSQEN means "frontward from" and is normally
> completed with a genitive case that is by origin ablatival in nature and so
> underscoring the notion of "away from."

I like what Carl says here since it underscores that there's a mindset
(if you will) expressed by the nature of a language.  The mother tongue
speakers of that language view their world through a particular pair of
lingual glasses.  These glasses do not determine what concepts can and
cannot be talked about (Yes, I disagree with the Sapir-Whorf strong
hypothesis), but they do significantly influence how a speaker chooses
his or her words and how he or she puts their thoughts together.

Why do I underscore this?  Because it is this type of information which
helps the modern student move toward "thinking Greek."  And I think that
is important.  We need to get out of our own "mindset" and into theirs. 
There needs to be balance!  For example, I wonder how Carl would
characterize Greek's prepositions in regard to his spatial referent
statement above.  I'm thinking of Machen's picture of the prepostions
and also of Porter's square-ball diagrams.  Do you (and others) think
those diagrams are accurate?  What are the advantages and disadvantages
of them?  If you wanted to help a Greek student "think Greek", and you
had those diagrams on the whiteboard, what would you say?

Lastly, I thought I would post the complete list of -QEN suffixes found
in the GNT.  This might be useful to several people on BGreek.  The
glosses are from Louw & Nida, for the most part:

ALLACOQEN:          from elsewhere
ANWQEN:             from above
EKEIQEN:            from there
EMPROSQEN:          in front of (MJS: out in front of)
ENQEN:              from here
ENTEUQEN:           from here, from this
EXWQEN:             from outside
ESWQEN:             from inside
KAKEIQEN:           (and) from there
KUKLOQEN:           around (MJS: I might translate this "out and 
			around")
MAKROQEN:           far (away) (MJS: "out and away" sometimes works)
hOQEN:              from where
OPISQEN:            from behind
OURANOQEN:          from the sky
PAIDIOQEN:          from childhood
PANTOQEN:           from all directions
POQEN:              from where?
PORRWQEN:           long before (MJS: this is like MAKROQEN, 
			but temporal, not spacial)




> Some of the older Homeric forms of pronouns have "ablatival genitive"
> endings in -QEN: EMEQEN (= EMOU), SEQEN (= SOU).
-- 
Mike Sangrey
msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Landisburg, Pa.
                        "The first one last wins."
            "A net of highly cohesive details reveals the truth."




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