[B-Greek] Adverbial Participles
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Sep 19 09:43:12 EDT 2003
At 6:29 AM -0700 9/19/03, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>I'm reading on Participles. This is stated in my Greek
>grammar:
>
>"A participle can stand in adverbial relation to a
>pronoun."
>
>My English grammar book says of English participles:
>"Participial phrases always act as adjectives."
Yes, well, but Greek grammar doesn't follow the rules of English grammar,
necessarily ...
>When in Greek a participle stands in "adverbial"
>relationship to a pronoun, does that mean we translate
>it as acting as an adjective (which English requires)?
There's no single hard-and-fast rule, but in general, an adverbial phrase
or clause works best to convey the sense of a Greek adverbial participle;
here's a couple examples:
hO IWANNHS EIS THN POLIN POREUOMENOS ANQRWPON TINA EIDEN.
While walking into the city, John saw a certain man.
As he walked into the city, John saw a certain man.
You could write, "John, walking into the city, saw a certain man," but
that, although intelligible, is not the clearest or most idiomatic English.
Another:
TAUTA POIHSAS hO IHSOUS EXHLQEN.
After doing these things, Jesus left.
When he had done these things, Jesus left.
You could write, "Jesus, having done these things, left," but that again is
a sentence which, though intelligible, isn't the clearest or most idiomatic
English.
--
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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