[B-Greek] Accusative of retained object
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Tue May 22 16:03:56 EDT 2007
On May 22, 2007, at 1:22 AM, Iver Larsen wrote:
> Entrust is like "give" and a few other verbs semantically trivalent
> and grammatically ditransitive,
> so let me use "give" as an example to illustrate:
>
> Active: God gave the Scriptures to the Jews (= God gave the Jews
> the Scriptures)
> This construction semantically has an agent, patient and
> beneficiary/receiver. Grammatically it has
> a subject, an object and an indirect object.
>
> Because it is ditransitive, it can be made into a passive in two ways:
>
> 1. Object-to-subject passivization: The Scriptures were given to
> the Jews (by God)
> 2. IndirectObject-to-subject passivization: The Jews were given the
> Scriptures (by God)
>
> In both cases, the agent (God) has been moved out of focus. In the
> first one, which I might call
> Passive Transformation 1 (PT1), the object is put in the focal
> subject (first) position. In the
> second one, which I might call Passive Transformation 2 (PT2), it
> is the indirect object that is put
> into focal position. (English is unclear in terms of focus, since
> that language can also have final
> position focus. Therefore, stress is the deciding factor in
> English, not position.)
>
> Greek PISTEUW in the sense of entrust something to somebody as
> found in Rom 3:2 and LOGIZOMAI in the
> sense of credit something to somebody are both semantically
> trivalent verbs with an agent, a patient
> and a beneficiary/receiver.
> In Romans 3:2 we find a PT2 which gives us:
> EPISTEUQHSAN TA LOGIA TOU QEOU
> (the Jews) were entrusted (with) the word(s) of God (by God)
> (If English requires a "with" here, that is a peculiarity that is
> of no consequence for the
> analysis. TA LOGIA TOU QEOU is the object for EPISTEUQHSAN).
This is a clear and unambiguous analysis. While I agree that "In both
cases, the agent (God) has been moved out of focus." Your analysis of
PT2 moves the indirect object (TOIS IOUDAIOIS implied) into subject
slot with EPISTEUQHSAN without changing the semantic role
(beneficiary/receiver).
However, it seems like Carl is saying something quite different.
Carl's rendering "They got the LOGIA in trust" appears to transfer
agency to the subject of EPISTEUQHSAN.
Elizabeth Kline
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