[B-Greek] Origin of the Infinitive

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon May 10 05:57:08 EDT 2004


At 8:58 AM +0200 5/10/04, Arie Dirkzwager wrote:
>Peter,
>
>That depends on the way of thinking or the personality structure of a
>person.
>Some people think only practically.
>Others cannot wait until they have explained a phenomenon historically. Even
>if they can determine "how the infinitive is used", there remains a
>psychological gap to be filled.  So the satisfaction of knowing the
>background helps them in the practical side too.
>
>Arie
>
>
>Dr. A. Dirkzwager
>Hoeselt, Belgium
>e-mail dirkzwager at pandora.be
>
>----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
>Van: "Gordon Goltz" <pastorpete69 at hotmail.com>
>Aan: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>Verzonden: maandag 10 mei 2004 5:10
>Onderwerp: [B-Greek] Origin of the Infinitive
>
>
>> Fellow Subscribers
>>    As fasinating as it is to determinte the "origin" of the infinitive is,
>> isn't it more important to determine "how" the infinitive is "used"?
>>
>> Peter Gordon

I confess that I am one of those who is as interested in origins as in
actual usage in Greek, but I try to keep those interests in an appropriate
balance when it comes to understanding the stages of ancient Greek with
which I have been most concerned--Homeric, Attic, and Hellenistic (Koine).

I think that it is unquestionably more important to understand the
functions and usages of the infinitive than to understand its origin. I
think Peter's question is relates to the distinction between a synchronic
or diachronic perspective and to the question of the relevance of etymology
to determining the meaning of a word at some particular point in the life
of a language. We must, I think, take the synchronic perspective on usage
insofar as the usage demonstrable for a particular time frame is itself
consistent, and etymology is often irrelevant to actual usage of a word in
Koine Greek (often, but not always irrelevant). On the other hand, inasmuch
as languages tend always to be in flux and especially so in an era such as
the Hellenistic, when influences of different cultures (and languages) were
affecting each other all or most of the time, older and newer usages may
and do overlap at a particular time, and some degree of diachronic
perspective upon usage is necessary. One of the evolving elements of
Hellenistic Greek that I find fascinating is the incipient emergence of the
hINA + subjunctive clause as equivalent to an infinitive--this is the
initial phase of the Modern Greek infinitive formed with NA + subjunctive.
-- 

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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