[B-Greek] "On the classifying of Genitives there is no end ... "
Rick Brannan
textgeek at gmail.com
Mon Mar 3 15:33:01 EST 2008
Byant (and Carl)
Right; and I blogged about Wallace's 'aporetic' genitive (including
footnotes) just over a year ago.
http://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog/2007/02/16/DespairOYeGreekGrammarians.aspx
Apparently February is "Month of the Genitive" for me.
Cheers,
Rick Brannan
http://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog
http://www.pastoralepistles.com
http://blog.logos.com
On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 12:16 PM, Bryant J. Williams III
<bjwvmw at com-pair.net> wrote:
> Dear Carl,
>
> Regarding Dan Wallace's use of "aporetic" genitive.
>
> Before one gets too serious about criticizing Dan Wallace for including
> "Aporetic" as a "classification" for the genitive, one should read his footnote,
> note 21, page 79, "That is, the 'I am at a loss' gen. (from the Greek word,
> ́απορέω, 'I am at a loss,' a tongue-in-cheek title suggested to me by J. Will
> Johnston)."
>
> Regarding the "adnominal" genitive.
>
> BDF, sections 162-168 lists seven specific uses of the adnominal genitive,
> included among these is the partitive genitive (sec. 164).
>
> En Xristwi,
>
> Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
> To: "B-Greek B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Cc: "Rick Brannan" <textgeek at gmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 4:51 AM
> Subject: [B-Greek] "On the classifying of Genitives there is no end ... "
>
>
> > If for no other reason (which I would not claim), the title (aye, the
> > very rubric of this message) of Rick Brannan's blog of yesterday makes
> > it worth pointing a finger at:
> >
> >
> http://www.supakoo.com/rick/ricoblog/2008/03/02/OnTheClassifyingOfGenitivesThereIsNoEnd.aspx
> > = http://tinyurl.com/32s5yx
> >
> > Some are aware that I have made "ad nauseam" complaints about this
> > practice, especially in Dan Wallace's GGBB. I was surprised and
> > appalled to learn from George Somsel's message on Titus 2:13
> > yesterday, that Wallace actually does have a subclassification of this
> > elusive and slippery Proteus of Greek nominal morphology and syntax --
> > a subclassification named "aporetic genitive." Now that is truly a
> > wonderful term; we have the so-called "aporetic" Socratic dialogues of
> > Plato that end without conclusion in a puzzlement that is preferable
> > to the initial state of puzzlement in that one knows where the blind
> > alleys of argumentation are; we have the Aristotelian discursive
> > procedure that he terms APORHSAI ἀπορῆσαι ("work through the
> > difficulties/problems") which he deems a necessary first step toward
> > solution of a major question. The English adjective derives ultimately
> > from the Greek verb APOREW (ἀπορέω), which is a denominative
> > verb from the alpha privative (ἀ-) and POROS (πόρος) "way,"
> > "means," "resource. An ἀπορία APORIA is a state of helplessness
> > in the face of a problem, a "no go" situation. To reach and confess
> > that one has arrived at an APORIA means, to paraphrase the lyric from
> > "Oklahoma," we've "gone about as fur as we can go!" (and we still
> > ain't got there).
> >
> > 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)
> >
> > ---
> > B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
> > B-Greek mailing list
> > B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
> >
>
>
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--
He who translates a verse verbatim is a liar.
But he who alters it is a villain and a heretic.
-- Talmud Bavli (Qid. 49a)
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