[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







More information about the B-Greek mailing list