[B-Greek] (no subject)

Yancy Smith Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Thu Nov 17 00:13:35 EST 2005


Dear list members:
I keep telling myself not to send emails to this list because I  
express myself so inexactly and even incorrectly, but here goes again.

This business of third person commands raises all sorts of  
interesting questions about grammar, semantics, and pragmatics. My  
contention is that grammar is only one factor in any communicative  
situation it may be used pragmatically in many, even sometimes  
surprising, ways that alter the semantics of the grammar. That is,  
the category of "imperative" and the form "command" are able to be  
given more meaning without completely breaking down immediately. Take  
for instance the third person singualar commands in the gospel of  
Matthew. They may be analyzed in several ways, but these categories  
suggested themselve to me as I went through them:

1. Commands to inanimate objects/concepts
Mt 5:16  (under control of a second person addressed)
Mt 5:37  (under control of a second person addressed)
Mt 6:9 (prayer or pronouncement/encantation) (under control of a  
second person addressed)
Mt 6:10 (prayer or pronouncement/encantation) (under control of a  
second person addressed)
Mt 8:13  (prayer or pronouncement/encantation)
Mt 9:29  (prayer or pronouncement/encantation/effective pronoucement)
10:13  (prayer or pronouncement/encantation/effective pronoucement)  
(under control of a second person addressed)
Mt 10:13  (prayer or pronouncement/encantation/effective  
pronoucement) (under control of a second person addressed)
Mt 26:39 (prayer or pronouncement/encantation/effective pronoucement)  
(under control of a second person addressed)
Mt 26:42 (prayer or pronouncement/encantation/effective pronoucement)  
(under control of a second person addressed)

2. Commands by way of relative clause, conditional clause or  
participial clause, actually or potentially included in the 2nd  
person group
Mt 5:31
Mt 11:15
Mt 13:9
Mt 15:4
Mt 15:28
Mt 16:24
Mt 19:6
Mt 19:12
Mt 24:15
Mt 24:17
Mt 24:18

3. Commands to body parts of second persons
Mt 6:3

4. Commands to third persons intended for second persons (including  
some passives)
Mt 6:3
Mt 18:17
Mt 27:22, 23

5. Commands to third persons intended as an insult
Mt 27:42

6. Addaptation of the “language of prayer/pronouncement/encantation”  
as insult
Mt 27:42

The class of commands given to inanimate objects, for example Mt 5:16  
hOTWS LHMPSATW TO FWS hHUMWN and Mt 5:37 ESTW DE hO LOGOS hUMWN NAI  
NAI present an interesting dilemma because they are definitely third  
person in form but addressed to something that cannot possibly  
respond to the command. Thus, they MUST be understood as directed to  
the 2nd person. I would suggest that this kind of third person  
command has to have the intervention of the 2nd person and the  
speakers and the hearers know this, it is another way of giving a 2nd  
person command. This is also true of 3rd person commands to the body  
parts of 2nd persons (Mt 6:3). Another way of expressing 2nd person  
commands.

In this same vein, we may see Mt 6:3 and Mt 8:17 as "commands" to 3rd  
persons that the third persons can not possibly carry out. hORATE  
MHDEIS GINWSKETW. How would the third person have anything to do with  
this command form at all. Again, this is simply an indirect form of  
2nd person command. The same is true for ESTW SOI hWSPER hO EQNIKOS  
KAI hO TELWNHS. Again, though this is in third person command form,  
it can only be carried out by the 2nd persons. The third person will  
only be the passive recipient of the new attitude enjoined thereby on  
the 2nd persons.

The class of 3rd person command given in conjunction with a relative  
clause, a participial phrase or a conditional clause that addresses  
some members of the 2nd person audience as belonging to a class is  
also a way of directing a command to 2nd persons. It is perhaps used  
for politeness and is often used in legal pronouncements.

Then there are the third person commands given in the context of prayer.

If you count all these up, it seems that the 3rd person command form  
is more often used as a form of command for 2nd persons, albeit  
polite or indirect, rather than for a true 3rd person command.

Yancy

Yancy Smith
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Brite Divinity School
Texas Christian University

Yancy Smith
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Brite Divinity School
Texas Christian University






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