[B-Greek] Col1:6,9: AF hHS hHMERAS
frjsilver at optonline.net
frjsilver at optonline.net
Fri Apr 6 09:13:52 EDT 2007
Dear Friends --
Comparing JN 27b: AP' EKEINHS THS WRAS to AF hHS hHMERAS, I 'feel' no difference in syntactic structure. It's not all that strange a construction, so I don't see the problem.
IF GAGNT is right in some way, and it doesn't have to be, then (adverbial? emphatic?) hHi could well (and more sensibly) be replaced by the more strictly grammatical TAUTHS or EKEINHS in the same position with no change in meaning. But it doesn't, since it's not in the text we have.
On this point, I think GAGNT is unhelpfully gilding the Greek lily instead of reading the text plainly. We need to work with the text, not the editorial glosses of commentators.
Or am I missing something?
Peace and blessings of these holy days to all.
Father James Silver
Monk James
Orthodox Church in America
----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Kline
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 12:28 am
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Col1:6,9: AF hHS hHMERAS
To: Stephen Baldwin
Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>
> On Apr 4, 2007, at 9:25 PM, Stephen Baldwin wrote:
>
> > Ladies and Gentlemen:
> > I was wondering whether anyone could provide some information
> or
> > references
> > on the above construction.
> > Zerwick/Grosvenor (GAGNT) say that it is a shortened form of
> > APO THS hHMERAS hHi
> > and provide no further information.
> >
> > Murray Harris says that it is an idiomatic form of AF hHMERAS
> hHi
> > where the
> > dative singular rel. pronoun hHi has been attracted to the
> case of its
> > antecedent and the result of that in turn transferred to the
> relative> clause.
> > This is at least an explanation of sorts but leaves one
> thirsting
> > for more.
> >
> > There seems to be an awful lot of attraction going on -- and being
> > morphologically-minded, I'd like to know more. If there's
> anything
> > out there
> > that will shed more light on attraction in general (err in a
> > linguistic
> > context :-)), I'd be curious to read more...
> >
> > Thanks
> > Stephen Baldwin
>
> Stephen,
>
> I will not respond to M.Culy's post since it was intended to be
> OFFLIST.
> Guy Cooper has some things to say about AF hHS hHMERAS and the
> notion
> of attraction. In Attic Syntax 1.51.10.0 Cooper states:
>
> "A relative sentence functions in many ways as a syntactic
> complex
> equivalent to an adjective. Often such a relative sentence is
> thought
> of as being as a whole in agreement with a substantive, whether
> noun,
> pronoun or substantivization. The case of the relative then has,
>
> against the general rule, no regard for its function within its
> one
> (relative) sentence. ... At first glance it seems that the
> relative
> has been drawn into the case of its antecedent, and it is only
> upon
> reflection and with practiced stylist perception that it appears
> that
> the relative is agreeing with the syntactic function of its
> relative
> sentence as a whole, the phenomenon is often spoken of as
> attraction ... it is more accurate to speak of the relative as
> assimilating ... to the case function of its sentence."
>
> The portion above was quoted to provide Cooper's framework for
> his
> reading of AF hHS hHMERAS which he does NOT consider as falling
> within his definition of assimilation.
>
> Cooper 1.51.10.3
>
> "The prepositional phrase AF hHS used after a form of hHMERA is
> a
> dating formula which need not be closely analyzed as an example
> of
> assimilation. It is comparable on the one hand to various semi-
> ellipses of hHMERA and the feminine used adverbially without
> ellipse ... "
>
> I need to spend more time thinking about this, but it appears
> from
> the examples given in Cooper showing AF hHS used with a form of
> hHMERA, that the word order found in Col. 1:6,9 is attested in
> Demosthenes 9:19 AF hHS hHMERAS, 18:26 AF hHS ... hHMERAS.
> Cooper
> takes no special interest in this word order, he lists it right
> along
> with citations for hHMERAi AP hHS. The way I am reading Cooper
> (could
> be wrong!) he sees AF hHS as a syntactic functional unit
> (quoting
> again) "The prepositional phrase AF hHS used after a form of
> hHMERA
> is a dating formula which need not be closely analyzed as an
> example
> of assimilation."
>
> Anyway, something to think about.
>
> Elizabeth Kline
>
>
>
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
>
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list