[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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