[B-Greek] Assimilation of the Relative (was Attraction of the Relative ...)

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Tue Dec 15 00:49:03 EST 2009


I cited Cooper on this back April of 2007 here  http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2007-April/042602.html

I think it is worth posting it again.

Assimilation of the Relative G.Cooper Attic Greek Prose Syntax vol 1.  
#51.10.0 p. 529-530

   "A relative sentence functions in many ways as a syntactic  
complex   equivalent to an adjective. Often such a relative sentence  
is thought   of as being as a whole in agreement with a substantive,  
whether noun,   pronoun or substantivization. The case of the relative  
then has,   against the general rule, no regard for its function  
within its own (relative) sentence. ... At first glance it seems that  
the relative   has been drawn into the case of its antecedent, and it  
is only upon   reflection and with practiced stylist perception that  
it appears that   the relative is agreeing with the syntactic function  
of its relative   sentence as a whole, the phenomenon is often spoken  
of as   attraction ... it is more accurate to speak of the relative  
as   assimilating ... to the case function of its sentence."

I find Cooper's treatment of this more attrative than anything I have  
come across anywhere else.


Elizabeth Kline







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