[B-Greek] Third-person commands
Yancy Smith
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Thu Nov 17 07:48:42 EST 2005
Dear list members:
(Sorry, this is a resend)
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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