[B-Greek] Caragounis' book
R Yochanan Bitan Buth
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Sun Nov 28 04:41:41 EST 2004
Don EGRAPSE
>I don't see how "even more so" can be supported on the whole, though
perhaps there are exceptions, e.g. as idiomatic expressions. When one has
fewer tools to work with, one can improvise, but it's hard for me to imagine
how improvisations can be superior to the tool designed for the job. I love
crescent wrenches, but I would rather have a wrench made just for the nut
I'm trying to unscrew.>
Simple. If we use your metaphors: the Dative case is the crescent wrench and
"prepositions + noun" are your tool designed for the job. Several
prepositions are more differentiated and communicative than one Dative case.
KAI EGRAPSE
>Actually, the use of "that" further illustrates the problem of ambiguity.
Ask anyone what "that" means, and I doubt that a purpose marker would be the
first response (or even second or third). So "that"
probably is not clearer,>
No one is arguing that 'that' + verb is clearer than 'in order to' or
clearer than an infinitive. It simply reflects a structure that shows how we
have NT texts that are potentially moving in the direction of something that
we will see regularized, remorphologized, and grammaticized later in Modern
Greek.
KAI EGRAPSE
>The connection certainly is fascinating, and illuminating for seeing change
in the language, such as with hINA to NA.>
Agreed. And morphologically similar to "EIS TON, EIS THN, EIS TO"//"ES TON,
ES THN, ES TO" > into > "STON, STHN, STO", or OMILEIN 'to talk' >> MILW 'I
speak' and MILAW [sic/outws!]. Though these further examples dropped an
unaccented initial vowel instead of the accented I'NA.
ERRWSQE
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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