[B-Greek] John 1:1c
kgraham0938 at comcast.net
kgraham0938 at comcast.net
Wed Jul 5 19:00:40 EDT 2006
Hello Rolf, thanks for your reply. Yesterday was a national holiday so I could play around on line, today I had to work so I apologize for the late response.
> 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).
Response: I remember you bringing this up on B-Hebrew in our discussion of OLAM. My question would be how do you relate this to which words are count nouns and which ones are not?
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Rolf: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.
Response: Now beautiful is not a noun that is an adjective so I don't think that would apply. And are you arguing that if a noun is referential then it is a count noun?
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> 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.
Response: I would argue that 2 Maccabees 7:37 is an example of QEOS being used purely qualitatively.
evgw. de, kaqa,per oi` avdelfoi, kai. sw/ma kai. yuch.n prodi,dwmi peri. tw/n patri,wn no,mwn evpikalou,menoj to.n qeo.n i[lewj tacu. tw/| e;qnei gene,sqai kai. se. meta. evtasmw/n kai. masti,gwn evxomologh,sasqai dio,ti mo,noj auvto.j qeo,j evstin
The last line here MONOS AUTOS QEOS I would argue is neither definite nor indefinite but qualitative, I am planning on putting this verse by itself on B - Greek and seeing what others say.
--
Kelton Graham
KGRAHAM0938 at comcast.net
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