[B-Greek] Prepositional phrases always adverbs

Mitch Larramore mitchlarramore at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 14 08:59:29 EDT 2007


Colossians begins with

PAULOS APOSTOLOS CRISTOU IHSOU DIA QELHMATOS
QEOU...CARIS hUMIN KAI EIRHNH APO QEOU PATROS hHMWN 

One source makes a "technical grammatical remark" and
states that "in actuality, all prepositionas (in prep.
phrases) retain their adverbial origins and function
adverbially." To which he then states with reference
to DIA QELHMATOS QEOU and APO QEOU that DIA would
modify an implied verb, such as "having been appointed
THROUGH THE WILL OF GOD" and the APO likewise would
have some implied verbal notion such as "are blessings
given FROM GOD."

Is he "technically" correct by requiring some verbal
element to be understood so that an apparent
'adjectival' prepositional phrase is 'technically'
adverbial? (In my sentence diagram by Grassmick, he
diagrams them as adjectives.) He calls the adjectival
prepositional phrase a shorthand formula for an
adverbial function that is "not technically acceptable
in formal grammatical usage." If this is correct, then
could it be argued that prepositional phrases, due to
improper usage over time, have become adjectival
phrases?



Mitch Larramore
Sugar Land, Texas


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Don't pick lemons.
See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos.
http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html 



More information about the B-Greek mailing list