[B-Greek] John 1:1c
Rolf Furuli
furuli at online.no
Wed Jul 5 01:26:45 EDT 2006
Dear Kelton,
In a study of lexical semantics it is profitable to use Ogden´s triangle og
signification with "word," "concept," and "reference" at the three corners.
It is particularly important to distinguish between the "concept" (in the
minds of native speakers) of a word and its "reference" (the thing in the
world denoted by the word). Regarding "reference," Moises Silva (Biblical
Words and their Meaning: An Introduction to Lexical Semantics 1994, p. 107)
compares four words which are different as to reference: 1) Plato (fully
referential), 2) law (mostly referential, 3) cold (partly referential), and
4) beautiful (non-referential). Example 4) can be put in the group "uncount
nouns" where we find qualities, substances, and processes.
As for QEOS, I would say that in all its occurrences in the LXX and the NT
it is fully referential. So if anyone would argue that this is not the case
in John 1:1c, because here QEOS is just a quality, that would be
exceptional. For claims of something exceptional evidence is needed. The
evidence should include examples of fully referential nouns that completely
loose their substantival nature and become adjectives, and examples showing
that this can be the case with the noun QEOS.
Best regards,
Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo
----- Original Message -----
From: <kgraham0938 at comcast.net>
To: <B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] John 1:1c
> Hello Rolf,
>
> I have heard of some linguist who argue for what is called 'bare nouns.'
> that is, nouns that do not have the definite or indefinite article as a
> result they are neither mass nor count, precisely because they denote
> qualities rather than physical entities.
>
> If this is true, how can one tell if QEOS is really not a bare noun but
> rather a count noun. If one argues that count nouns are nouns that can be
> plural then I would argue that there are examples within the GNT where
> count nouns are taken to be qualitative as well as other biblical sources.
> --
> Kelton Graham
> KGRAHAM0938 at comcast.net
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