[B-Greek] re: Fronting for Emphasis in 1 John

R Yochanan Bitan Buth ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Sat Nov 6 07:31:04 EST 2004


Cyndy DE EGRAPSEN
KAI Mitch EGRAPSEN 
>>Dr. Culy in 1 John notes quite a few fronting
constructions, each denoting emphasis. I'm wondering
how a letter the size of 1 John (very short) can have
so much emphases based on fronting. With so much
fronting (I'm not even through with the 2nd chapter),
doesn't that tend to negate "emphasis?">>
 
(Cyndy TE HRKSATO EDW)
>Dear Mitch,
I'm still waiting for my copy of Culy, which should arrive any time, but
I'll 
hazard a reply to this anyway.
 
It is a good question: are the fronted constructions idiosyncratic,
stylistic 
or thematic?
 
It is something like the questions about the (over)use of OUN in the gospel 
of John (200 out of 499 occurrences) and EUQUS in Mark (41 out of 51 
occurrences) or other emphatic or marked constructions that have a higher
than expected 
occurrence.  Are these example just how the writer writes (and does this
make 
no semantic contribution?), are they something like an exclamation point and

convey urgency and vigor to the whole discourse (saying "this is
important!", 
or appealing to recipients, etc.) , or is there a relationship between the
use 
of emphatic/marked constructions and prominence of a marked word, phrase or 
sentence?
 
I believe that this question is primarily answered in 1 John by looking for 
patterns of repetition that occur with fronting constructions.  Am I right
in 
thinking this includes constructions such as ESTIN AUTH/AUTOS (or reversed)?
I 
see patterns that look like thematic fronting to me that combines with
deixis.
 
Cindy Westfall>

 

Mitch

XAIREIN

 

A simple rule of thumb can help students read Greek texts on the fly:

 

0.	Anything in front of the verb (not counting connectors 'and',
'therefore', but', etc) is 'marked', that is, is has a special role to play
in presenting the story or essay.
1.	If the fronted item is the main point of the clause, that is if it
contains the high point of relevancy in the clause, then it can be
considered 'emphatic', or in more nuanced terms, a FOCUS element. Read with
special/focal/emphatic intonation.
2.	Otherwise, the fronted item is
relational/thematic/contextual/topical, it is providing some kind of link or
relation to the previous or coming context and is intended to provide a
marked framework within or against which the clause is spoken. Do NOT read
these with special/focal/emphatic intonation.
3.	Not every sentence will have either a marked Focal element or a
marked Relational element. Also, some clauses/sentences have marked fronted
element that can be read with both interpretations and a reader must make a
choice. (PS: marked relationals are often called Topics by linguists, but
these should not be confused with either subjects or topics of a discourse
and often provide simple contestualiztion, setting, or other relational
material: 'in the morning', 'as for X', etc.) 

 

Try reading 1 John with the above framework and see which marked fronted
items are Focus, and which are Contexualizations (a.k.a., marked topics,
marked settings, K.T.L.). (This reading strategy is part of what is called
pragmatic structure by linguists and is bigger than even Greek and has
tie-ins crosslinguistically.)

Examples: 1 John 1:6 has two fronted elements KOINONIAN . . . EN TW SKOTEI
that are probably both Contextualizations and not Focus. However, in 1:7
AUTOS and KOINONIAN are probable candidates for FOCUS while EN TW FWTI and
TO AIMA IHSOU TOU UIOU AUTOU are likely contextualizations. 

The above also makes reading an interesting interpretative exercise (just
like poetry readings in English), something to be done unconsciously and on
the fly with practice.

 

ERRWSO

Randall Buth

 

 

Randall Buth, PhD

Director, Biblical Language Center

www.biblicalulpan.org

and Director, Biblical Studies in Israel

Hebrew University, Rothberg International School

ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il

 




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