[B-Greek] EIMI with no Predicate Nominative

Kenneth Litwak javajedi2 at yahoo.com
Fri Oct 10 17:12:16 EDT 2008


   It is common for a nominativve noun/adjective with ESTI(N) to be followed by a predicate nominative.  If there is not a predicate nominative, but one or more prepositional phrases, how can one determine which prepositional phrase is modifying or related to the supplied form of EIMI?  So, for example,

(OTI EN TOIS LOGOIS DAUID TOIS ESCATOS ESTIN (O ARIQMOS (UIWN LEUI APO EIKOSAETOUS KAI EPANW

I don't recall having ever read anything beyond predicate nominatives about what the object would be of EIMI with a nominative subject. However, I can see this being "In the last words of David is the number of the sons of Levi from twenty and up," or "The number of the sons of Levi from twenty and up is in the last words of David," or "The number of the sons of Levi from twenty and above is [recorded] in the last words of David."  All those are possible I think. Is there a grammatical rule to provide guidance on which one is corret?  Indeed after telling studnets about EIMI taking nominatives, needing to say that EIMI has a prepositional phrase as its object, but not a precise rule for this has proved problematic.  Thanks.


Ken  


      



More information about the B-Greek mailing list