[B-Greek] Adjectival and Adverbial Prepositional Phrases
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri May 13 17:15:02 EDT 2005
On May 13, 2005, at 3:30 PM, James Davis wrote:
> Concerning adjectival and adverbial prepositional phrases, I
> appreciate so very much the comments of Carl W. Conrad, James
> Tauber and Iver Larsen.
>
> I have understood from their comments that the case of the object
> of the preposition does not govern whether a prepositional phrase
> is adjectival or adverbial.
>
> Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 23:43:55 -0400, Carl Conrad wrote:
> "META with the genitive can be an adjectival phrase ONLY if it is
> found in a context where that prepositional phrase can be said to
> characterize a noun. In the sentence, HLQEN hO IHSOUS META TWN
> MAQHTWN AUTOU, META TWN MAQHTWN AUTOU can only be construed with
> HLQEN and so is adverbial. On the other hand, if we have the
> prepositional phrase within an article-noun phrase, hH MET' EKEINOU
> TOU ANQRWPOU GUNH, the phrase MET' EKEINOU TWO ANQRWPOU is
> adjectival--but I think the adverbial function is far more common.
>
> More controversial is the OT text cited by Paul in Rom 1:17 hO DE
> DIKAIOS EK PISTEWS ZHSETAI. Some will insist that EK PISTEWS is
> adjectival and qualifies hO DIKAIOS, and it may well be the case
> that this is how Paul understood it, but the case can be made for
> the proposition that EK PISTEWS is adverbial and qualifies
> ZHSETAI. Is it "will live as a result of faith" or is it "the one
> who is righteous by faith will live"?
>
> Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 16:33:58 -0400, Carl Conrad wrote:
> "Whether the prepositional phrase is adjectival or adverbial
> depends upon its syntactic usage in the clause in which it appears,
> NOT upon the case of the object of the preposition."
>
> Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 02:10:43 +0800, James Tauber wrote: "Whether
> a particular prepositional phrase is adverbial or adjectival is, I
> suspect, almost always something that has to be inferred from the
> context rather than there being any syntactic rules. Consider the
> English sentence: 'I saw the man with my binoculars.' The
> prepositional phrase is ambigous in that it may be modifying the
> verb 'saw' (Ihad the binoculars) or qualifying the noun phrase 'the
> man' (he had the binoculars)."
>
> Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 09:10:19 +0300, Iver Larsen wrote:
> "Sometimes deep-structure, semantic distinctions are neutralized at
> the surface level (the syntax) as here.
>
> Your sentence has two possible semantic interpretations:
>
> 1. the semantic verb is "see" which is divalent, i.e. expects two
> participants. One participant is the agent "I", another is the
> patient "man". A preposition at the surface level often corresponds
> to adding a semantic role, thereby changing the semantic verb from
> divalent to trivalent. In this case the role added is "instrument",
> and the participant filling that role is "my binoculars".
>
> 2. The semantic verb "see" remains divalent and is connected to two
> participants. But the patient role is filled not by the simple noun
> "man", but by a complex noun phrase consisting of the head noun
> "man" modified by a rankshifted clause "who had my binoculars". In
> the semantic structure one needs to supply an implicit verb like
> "have".
>
> ...The distinction between adjectival and adverbial is a
> syntactical distinction only. It does not apply to the semantic
> level."
>
> The preceding comments are really very helpful. It has been nearly
> 60 years since I studied NT Greek. The grammars that I have do not
> really address the issue.
>
> Wallace argues;
> "There are exceptions to the adverbial force of prepositions. Some
> function at times adjectivally. In general, the prepositions that
> take accusative and dative case objects function adverbially, while
> those that take a genitive case object often function
> adjectivally. ...A proper understanding of prepositions is vital
> to exegesis. Many an exegetical debate has turned on the use of a
> particular preposition."
>
> My next question concerns Luke 9:39. KAI IDOU PNEUMA LAMBANEI
> AUTON KAI EXAIFNHS KRAZEI KAI SPARASSEI AUTON META AFROU KAI
> MOGIS APOCWREI
> AP' AUTOU SUNTRIBON AUTON (My first attempt to transliterate Greek
> text into B-Greek).
>
> English translation: "and behold a spirit takes him and suddenly he
> cries out and it throws into convulsion him with foaming and with
> difficulty departs from him bruising him.
>
> Now regarding the prepositional phrase "META + the genitive AFROU"
> does it not characterize AUTOU, the preceding pronoun. Is this not
> a case where the evil spirit convulses and he foams. Mark 9:18
> says: "and whersoever him it seizes, it dashes down him; and he
> foams (KAI AFRIZEI).
I suppose you mean "does it not characterize AUTON?" No, I don't
think so; rather I think that META AFROU is an adverbial phrase to be
taken with SPARASSEI: "convulses him with accompanying foaming at the
mouth." Nor do I think I've ever seen a prepositional phrase
modifying an accusative pronoun. No doubt you've rightly understood
what the sentence as a whole is saying, and yes, the spirit convulses
the man and he foams--but the foaming is an attendant circumstance of
the convulsion; it is not describing the man adjectivally.
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