[B-Greek] Acts 1,3 by Culy/Parsons
Martin Culy
MCuly at briercrest.ca
Wed Mar 17 15:02:24 EST 2004
Yes, AUTON is part of a prepositional phrase as is made clear later in the
same note. It may have been better if Parsons and myself had written
something like, "are not part of a prepositional phrase, as it is here (META
TO PAQEIN AUTON)" to remove the potential ambiguity. The expression "lower
clause" is synonymous with the more traditional label "subordinate clause."
We used the common linguistic label "lower" in an (unsuccessful?) effort to
make the notion of "raising" easier to grasp (in the limited space that we
had).
Let me say a brief word about raising and then leave the question of whether
others are familiar with the notion to the B-Greek list. Raising relies on
the idea that language has both an underlying form/structure and a surface
form/structure. Let me try to briefly explain these notions (which linguists
debate) and the notion of raising by discussing an English example. Many
linguists would say that the sentence, "I want her to run faster," is
derived from an underlying structure in which the subordinate/lower clause
("she run faster") is the direct object or complement of the main clause ("I
want . . ."). The third singular feminine pronoun is the underlying or
conceptual subject of the subordinate clause ("X run faster"). We would,
therefore, expect it to bear nominative case marking in English ("She").
But the sentence "I want she to run faster" would be ungrammatical. The
fact that in the surface structure the pronoun will always bear accusative
case marking ("her") shows us that it is not functioning as the subject of
the verb "run" in the subordinate clause, but rather as the direct object of
the main clause verb "want." Consequently, linguists argue that it has been
"raised" so that it now functions (at a surface level) as a constituent of
the main clause rather than the lower/subordinate clause. In other words,
although conceptually it is the subject of the verb "run," syntactically it
is treated as the direct object of the verb "want"
I hope this sheds further light on the subject rather than muddying the
waters further.
Martin Culy
Associate Professor of New Testament
Briercrest Biblical Seminary
-----Original Message-----
From: Eddie Mishoe [mailto:edmishoe at yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 8:04 AM
To: B Greek
Subject: [B-Greek] Acts 1,3 by Culy/Parsons [mx]
I came across this web site by doing a search on Culy and Parson's new book
Acts, A Handbook on the Greek Text, and would like to post this question
(and many others if allowed).
Acts 1,3
hOIS KAI PARESTHSEN hEAUTON ZWNTA META TO PAQEIN AUTON EN POLLOIS
TEKMHRIOIS, DI hHMERWN TESSERAKONTA OPTANOMENOS AUTOIS KAI LEGWN TA PERI THS
BASILEIAS TOU QEOU'
On this passage he writes: "Some linguists have argued that in infinitive
constructions that are not part of a prepositional phrase, as here (META TO
PAQEIN AUTON), "raising" has occurred. The noun that we expect to be the
"subject" of the infinitive has been "raised" from the infinitive (or lower)
clause to the main clause, where it functions syntactically as the direct
object of the verb."
I am not following his comments here. META TO PAQEIN AUTON does seem to be
part of a prepositional phrase (does not META go with the articular
infinitive?). But my question is, is anyone familiar with this "raising"
concept and could you simplify what it is he is analyzing here? Could
someone identify the "lower clause" and main clause for me also?
Eddie Mishoe
Pastor
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