[B-Greek] Pronoun or Adjective

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Aug 3 05:49:28 EDT 2007


On Aug 2, 2007, at 10:00 PM, Delbert Flora wrote:

> I never thought that there was a debate over what constituted a  
> pronoun and
> what constituted an adjective in certain instances. Would anyone  
> object to
> the following understanding of pronouns versus adjectives:
>
> a pronoun has an antecedent (stated or implied)
>
> an adjective does not have an antecedent
>
> thus, the distinguishing characteristic is related to an antecedent.
>
> Something tells me that I am overlooking something way too obvious.

What you're forgetting, I think, is that there are several different  
categories of pronouns, some of which have both SUBSTANTIVAL usage  
(i.e. representing a noun) and ADJECTIVAL (i.e. qualifying a noun);  
it is essentially the RELATIVE pronoun that has an antecedent, but  
there are also PERSONAL, POSSESSIVE, RECIPROCAL, REFLEXIVE,  
CORRELATIVE, DEMONSTRATIVE (substantival and adjectival), and  
INDEFINITE (substantival and adjectival), and INTERROGATIVE  
(substantival and adjectival) pronouns. Particularly relevant to your  
question are those categories that have both substantival and  
adjectival forms and functions, as

τίς TI/S interrogative pronoun ("who, which one")
τίς ἀνήρ TI/S ANH/R  interrogative adjective ("which man?)
τις TIS indefinite pronoun ("someone, anyone")
ἀνήρ τις  ANHR TIS indefinitive adjective ("a certain unnamed  
man, some man")

So also the demonstratives (hOUTOS/hAUTH/TOUTO, EKEINOS/EKEINH/ 
EKEINO, hODE/hHDE/TODE) can be used adjectivally (hOUTOS hO ANHR  
"this man) or substantivally (hOUTOS "this {person/man})

Carl W. Conrad





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