[B-Greek] Phil. 1:13
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Sat May 15 02:20:21 EDT 2004
> I have the impression, Iver, that we've been talking past each other
rather
> than to each other--that neither of us is understanding what the other
> says--or at least what the other means.
You are right, but this last post of yours has been very helpful in
clarifying the matter, especially this paragraph:
> I've never argued that EN CRISTWi belongs to FANEROUS GENESQAI; what I've
> argued is that EN CRISTWi must construe as the predicate phrase with an
> implicit ONTAS or GENOMENOUS so that the subject of FANEROUS GENESQAI is
> TOUS DESMOUS MOU EN CRISTWi ONTAS/GENOMEOUS.
Sorry, I thought you were arguing the first sentence, because you said in
your first post:
"FANEROUS is a predicate adjective with EN CRISTWi as a modifier of FANEROUS
GENESQAI"
I fully agree with your last statement above with ONTAS/GENOMENOUS as being
implied in the deep structure.
Maybe our difference in perspective is that traditionally it seems to be
understood that a prepositional phrase must always be adverbial, whereas I
am saying that it can occasionally be adjectival at the surface level of the
grammar. In that case EN CRISTWi belongs to TOU DESMOUS MOU just as EN
KURIWi belongs to TON AGAPHTON MOU. However, if we go to the semantic deep
structure, there will always be some implicit predicate, usually a form of
the verb "to be" and often in a rankshifted relative clause or a participial
construction. I was talking about the surface structure, and you seem to be
talking about the deep structure, since you supply the missing predicate.
As often happens our disagreement diminishes once we understand each other.
That is the nature of brief e-mail exchanges, especially when we approach
the text from different perspectives.
Thanks for the clarification,
Iver Larsen
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