[B-Greek] Mk 5:8 voc or nom?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Dec 5 07:28:24 EST 2004


At 6:14 AM -0500 12/5/04, gfsomsel at juno.com wrote:
>On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 16:21:40 -0600 Steven Lo Vullo <themelios at charter.net>
>writes:
>> On Dec 1, 2004, at 1:26 PM, gfsomsel at juno.com wrote:
>>
>> > Functionally this is a vocative though its form is nominative.  It
>> is
>> > not
>> > uncommon for the nominative to be used for the vocative.
>>
>> But George, the neuter nominative and vocative have the same form,
>> so
>> why consider it nominative when it is clearly a case of address?
>> ============
>>
>> Steven Lo Vullo
>> Madison, WI
>_______________
>
>Agreed, the form is the same.  Consider, however, several facts:
>
>1.  A.T. Robertson notes "but in reality it is not a case at all."
>2. Robertson also cites Farrer who conjectured that there was originally
>no difference in form but that the difference was due to rapid
>pronunciation.
>3. Even in the time of Homer the nominative began to displace the
>vocative.

I don't say this is wrong, George, but what's the evidence for it--at least
so far as the singular is concerned? It is of course true that the
nominative plural was used as vocative from way back, but are there Homeric
nominative singulars used for vocative?

>4. In GoMk there are a number of clear vocatives, but these tend to
>cluster around the words DIDASKALOS / DIDASKALE and KURIOS / KURIE.
>5. There are clear instances of the use of the nominative form rather
>than a vocative to function as a vocative in the GoMk such as Mk 14.36
>ABBA, hO PATHR and 15.34 hO QEOS MOU, hO QEOS MOU.
>
>I would therefore tend to prefer to call this a nominative form with a
>vocative function.
>
>george
>gfsomsel
>---
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-- 

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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