[B-Greek] Final Word Emphasis.

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Apr 4 19:28:34 EDT 2006


On Apr 4, 2006, at 6:55 PM, Bert de Haan wrote:

> I (think I) remember reading a discussion on B-Greek several years  
> ago that
> involved one of the participants advocating that in addition to  
> there being
> emphasis on words that are placed toward the left of the sentence,  
> placing a
> word last in the sentence can also be used to draw attention to it.
> I've tried to find it in the archives but failed.
> Do any of you remember this discussion?
> Even if you don't, maybe you don't mind giving your thoughts on it.
> Thank you.

I think that the topic has arisen repeatedly over the past several  
years. Iver Larsen has expounded a doctrine that emphasis in Koine  
Greek clauses is achieved fundamentally by fronting the emphasized  
element, but he has, I think, conceded that there are some  
differences from one author to the other. For my part I have argued  
that the final position before a major pause in discourse is also a  
position of emphasis; that is certainly the case in Latin and I  
believe it is clearly the case in Greek poetry as well and then in  
prose that is formulated with deliberate rhetorical articulation.

One message from the archives (of quite a few) that displays our  
opposing views on this question may be found at http://tinyurl.com/f4t8k

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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