[B-Greek] Prepositional Phrases
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Oct 6 17:40:07 EDT 2003
At 4:19 PM -0400 10/6/03, Doug Hoxworth wrote:
>><Carl>
>>In general I think one OUGHT to try to construe prepositional phrases
>>with elements that they modify adverbially, if that's possible, before
>>trying to understand them as construing with a nominal expression.
>
><doug>
>does placement/location of the prepositional phrase have
>anything to do with how it is to be understood?
Yes, but ... For my part, I think it matters more to the extent that we can
judge the writer to have been a very careful writer (that judgment based on
what seems to be a reasonably sizable volume of his/her writing). BUT, a
writer who isn't very careful may very well append a phrase, even a
prepositional phrase, more or less as an afterthought after enunciating
first and foremost what is/are his/her chief concerns. There's another
factor too, one on which Iver and I have had serious differences of
opinion: I think that the final position in a clause may often be a
position of emphasis, whereas Iver has stated frequently his view of
"frontal prominence" (somehow I don't think that's quite the phrase he
uses, but perhaps it gets the idea across). I think that Iver's right about
this as a general rule, but I think that there are differences from one
writer to another and that a writer who employs rhetorical devices
carefully may in fact position a word or phrase at the end of a clause or
sentence quite emphatically. I don't know whether that's makes it quite
clear, but all I can answer to your question is, "Yes, but ..."
So in your sentence from Rev 13:8,
Re 13:8 KAI PROSKUNHSOUSIN AUTON PANTES hOI KATOIKOUNTES
EPI THS GHS, hOU OU GEGRAPTAI TO ONOMA AUTOU EN TWi
BIBLIWi THS ZWHS TOU ARNIOU TOU ESFAGMENOU APO KATABOLHS
KOSMOU.
I would say in this instance, as I did earlier, that I think APO KATABOLHS
KOSMOU should be construed with GEGRAPTAI, although theoretically it could
be construed with ESFAGMENOU. It looks to me like APO KATABOLHS KOSMOU is
an emphatic phrase; it also looks to me like what we have here in the final
clause, in terms of word-order, is (a) elements of a relative clause in a
Semitizing formulation (hOU OU GEGRAPTAI TO ONOMA AUTOU) followed by two
adverbial phrases modifying GEGRAPTAI (or OU GEGRAPTAI): (a) EN TWi BIBLIWi
THS ZWHS with its trailing adjectival modifier TOU ARNIOU TOU ESFAGMENOU,
(b) APO KATABOLHS KOSMOU. As I read this in terms of its rhetorical impact,
it might be Englished thus: "whose name does NOT stand written in the book
of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered--has NOT stood written EVER since
the world was created."
I really do NOT think that final prepositional phrase belongs with
ESFAGMENOU; I also find it hard to imagine that it is simply a loose
addendum to a clause that is already complete.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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