[B-Greek] Attributive and Predicate Adjectives

Donald R. Vance, Ph.D. donaldrvance at mac.com
Sun Jul 29 23:31:07 EDT 2007


What people seem to be missing in this discussion is that a predicate  
adjective forms the predicate of a clause (hence the name), i.e., it  
makes a sentence, and the attributive adjective does not. The  
difference between "the red ball" and "the ball is red" is that the  
first one is an incomplete thought. It is part of a larger clause  
whereas the second sentence IS the clause. Whether or not there is a  
lesser or greater emphasis on the adjective depends on the rest of  
the clause/sentence of which "the red ball" is a part.


Donald R. Vance, Ph.D.
Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature
Oral Roberts University
dvance at oru.edu
donaldrvance at mac.com


On Jul 29, 2007, at 10:00 PM, Delbert Flora wrote:

> Henry Carmichael wrote:
>
>> When the adjective does have the article, as you have in the second
>> example, you see a nuance of difference.  Is the difference one that
>> emphasizes the truthfulness of the saying, or is it to emphasize this
>> particular true saying as compared to other true sayings - first  
>> among
>> equals, as it were?
>
>
> What I was hoping to see as at least one answer to this question was
> what would be lost if we made no distinction between the attributive
> and predicate? The only consequence I see is it would result in  
> perhaps
> a poor English translation, but the Greek would not be compromised. Is
> there any difference at all between "the red ball" and "the ball is  
> red"
> semantically? I am a little surprised at how much attention this  
> adjective
> and noun relation get.
>
> Delbert Flora
>
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