[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
>  >
>
>
>  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>  No virus found in this incoming message.
>  Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>  Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.21.3/1307 - Release Date: 03/02/08 3:59
>  PM
>
>
>  For your security this Message has been checked for Viruses as a courtesy of Com-Pair Services!
>
>



-- 
He who translates a verse verbatim is a liar.
But he who alters it is a villain and a heretic.
                          -- Talmud Bavli (Qid. 49a)


More information about the B-Greek mailing list