[B-Greek] Qualitative Predicate Nominatives

Brian Abasciano bvabasciano at gmail.com
Fri Oct 6 12:01:03 EDT 2006


CWC: > What good does it do to say "can ALMOST be equated with love"? Either
> it CAN or it CAN'T. Aren't we dealing with rhetorical figurative 
> expression here? I rather doubt that we can formulate strict  grammatical 
> rules to govern such usage.

BA: Then forget that final part ("can ALMOST be equated with love"). What 
about the rest? Can a predicate nominative (PN) that is qualitative have the 
sense of a mere adjective? Does not describing something in effect as 
belonging to a class indicates a thoroughgoing possession of the properties 
of the class? And if one wants to consider 1 John 4:8, does not the PN 
construction indicate that in the view of the author, God is wholly and 
thoroughly loving, something more than simply saying that God is loving? I 
am genuinely interested to know others' views on how qualitative PN's are to 
be construed.

Thanks,

Brian Abasciano

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
To: "Brian Abasciano" <bvabasciano at gmail.com>
Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Qualitative Predicate Nominatives


>
> On Oct 6, 2006, at 11:42 AM, Brian Abasciano wrote:
>
>> Woops! I meant to say in number 2:
>>
>> "So he thinks these are normally qualitative, sometimes indefinite,  and 
>> rarely (if ever -- the two studies on this found no instances) 
>> indefinite."
>
> I think you ended up writing this exactly as you did in your original 
> formulation. What I find in Wallace (p. 262) is this:
>
> "A general rule about the construction can now be stated: An  anarthrous 
> pre-verbal PN is normally qualitative, sometimes definite,  and only 
> rarely indefinite."
>
>>
>> Brian Abasciano
>>
>> Re:
>>
>> The recent discussion of John 1:1 has raised a couple questions I  want 
>> to pose. So this is a spin-off of that discussion that will  hopefully be 
>> more grammatical in focus. If this is inappropriate,  just let me know.
>>
>> (1) Can a predicate nominative (PN) that is qualitative have the  sense 
>> of a mere adjective? I would think not, that describing  something in 
>> effect as belonging to a class indicates a  thoroughgoing possession of 
>> the properties of the class. So, as I  mentioned to some off list, when 1 
>> John 4:8 says, e.g., that "God  is love", it does not simply mean that 
>> God is loving, but that he  is loving through and through, wholly loving, 
>> so much so that he  can almost be equated with love.
>
> What good does it do to say "can ALMOST be equated with love"? Either  it 
> CAN or it CAN'T. Aren't we dealing with rhetorical figurative  expression 
> here? I rather doubt that we can formulate strict  grammatical rules to 
> govern such usage.
>
>>
>> (2) Most NT scholars have taken Colwell's rule to indicate that 
>> anarthrous pre-verbal PN's are normally definite. Wallace corrects  this, 
>> but on the basis of the research with which he corrects this,  he also 
>> states that it is a general rule that anarthrous pre-verbal  PN's are 
>> rarely, if ever, indefinite (Wallace, 262). So he thinks  these are 
>> normally qualitative, sometimes indefinite, and rarely  (if ever -- the 
>> two studies on this found no instances) indefinite.  Do you agree?
>
> I do sincerely hope that any thread ensuing upon this subject-matter  can 
> steer clear of John 1:1.
>
>
> 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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