[B-Greek] Does the gender of a noun dictate the gender of a previous pronoun?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Nov 3 12:49:38 EST 2006
On Nov 3, 2006, at 11:44 AM, Jason Kerrigan wrote:
> I know that pronouns always match the gender of their antecedents,
> but if there is no atecedent do they necessarily match the gender
> of a subsequent noun that identifies the same subject as that
> previous pronoun does? Or, does the gender of the pronoun instead
> express the actual gender of the subject referred to despite the
> fact the that subsequent noun may not do so?
It might be more helpful to cite the specific instance about which
you're asking, rather than to hint at some general rule in a way that
suggests,"If we find an egg, does it have to come from a chicken, or
could it come from a duck, or maybe even from a Komodo dragon?"
Actually it sounds like you're asking about neuter or masculine
pronouns referring to the Holy Spirit. But your question suggests
that you are NOT asking a GENERAL question but rather are looking for
a rule that will clarify some text that you're concerned about. I may
be quite wrong about that, but if you DO have some specific text in
view, you would do better to indicate it.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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