[B-Greek] syntax & information structure James 3:2-3 (was Syntax of Col 1:22)
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Mon Aug 17 18:18:05 EDT 2009
Carl has cleared up the question about Col 1:22. While doing my
research on this I came across a different question. What about
preposed genitive nouns modifying a head noun in a following
prepositional phrase? Looking into this I came across James TWN hIPPWN
in James 3:2-3, a somewhat difficult passage. You will notice that my
direction changes here, leaving the original question behind and heads
off towards questions about information structure.
.
James 3:2 πολλὰ γὰρ πταίομεν ἅπαντες. εἴ
τις ἐν λόγῳ οὐ πταίει, οὗτος
τέλειος ἀνὴρ δυνατὸς χαλιναγωγῆσαι
καὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα. 3 εἰ δὲ τῶν ἵππων
τοὺς χαλινοὺς εἰς τὰ στόματα
βάλλομεν εἰς τὸ πείθεσθαι αὐτοὺς
ἡμῖν, καὶ ὅλον τὸ σῶμα αὐτῶν
μετάγομεν.
.
JAMES 3:2 POLLA GAR PTAIOMEN hAPANTES. EI TIS EN LOGWi OU PTAIEI,
hOUTOS TELEIOS ANHR DUNATOS CALINAGWGHSAI KAI hOLON TO SWMA. 3 EI DE
TWN hIPPWN TOUS CALINOUS EIS TA STOMATA BALLOMEN EIS TO PEIQESQAI
AUTOUS hHMIN, KAI hOLON TO SWMA AUTWN METAGOMEN
.
In James 3:3 we see an example of a preposed genitive noun TWN hIPPWN.
One way to read it, TWN hIPPWN modifies TA STOMATA (J.Huther) which is
within a prepositional phrase EIS TA STOMATA. Another reading, TWN
hIPPWN modifies TOUS CALINOUS. J.B. Mayor suggests TWN hIPPWN modifies
both TOUS CALINOUS and TA STOMATA. Alford suggests that TWN hIPPWN
might mean something like "in the case of horses" thus linking ideas
CALINAGWGHSAI ... SWMA from the immediately preceding context.
Alford's suggestion is interesting in light of proposals in recent
text-linguistics about fronted constituents. S.Levinsohn talks about
TWN hIPPWN in Js. 3:3 (Discourse Features SIL, 2000, p63). Levinsohn
suggests that TWN hIPPWN is preposed to indicate a shift from talking
about people to talking about horses. What I find interesting here, is
that Alford in the second half of the nineteenth century had a very
similar reading without the trappings of text-linguistics. The
terminology is quite different and Levinsohn certainly frames the
question differently, nevertheless ... draw your on conclusions about
this.
.
Elizabeth Kline
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