[B-Greek] "On the classifying of Genitives there is no end ... "
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
nebarry at verizon.net
Mon Mar 3 15:12:09 EST 2008
>From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>Date: 2008/03/03 Mon AM 06:51:35 CST
>To: B-Greek B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>Cc: Rick Brannan <textgeek at gmail.com>
>Subject: [B-Greek] "On the classifying of Genitives there is no end ... "
>>I persist in thinking that the adnominal genitive (as opposed to
partitive and ablatival usages) is strictly a structural case, not a
semantic one, and that most of the proposed classifications and
subclassifications of the adnominal genitive have been created as an
aid (crutch?) to translation into a target language rather than as a
key to understanding usage. Ultimately one really has to figure out
the instances of adnominal genitive -- if one doesn't grasp their
meaning more or less intuitively at first sight -- by thinking them
through in their context. I'm not so sure that a grammarian is a great
resource toward this end.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)<<
Amen, brother Conrad! This has been one of my big complaints about on this issue, and especially concerning Wallace. I usually put it in terms of "Instead of inventing a grammatical category, simply describe the usage in context."
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Classics Instructor, The American Academy
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
Professor, WRTS
http://www.wittenbergreformed.org
And my site:
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry
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