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

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Dec 15 02:42:35 EST 2009


Thanks,

I looked up the post and saw that it sprang from AF' hHS hHMERAS in Col 1:6,9.

This is a simple case of attraction or assimilation. It is just a word order
variation of APO THS hHMERAS hHS.
The fronting of the hHS is probably connected to the association between the
relative pronoun and the implied demonstrative function. I believe it
corresponds to English: "From that day which/that/when" rather than simply "from
the day which/that/when".

There are similar expressions with other prepositions:

Matt 24:38 (Luk 17:27) ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας εἰσῆλθεν Νῶε εἰς τὴν κιβωτόν
ACRI hHS hHMERAS EISHLQEN NWE EIS THN KIBWTON
until the very day that Noah entered the ark.

Luk 1:20 ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας γένηται ταῦτα
ACRI hHS hHMERAS GENHTAI TAUTA
until that day when these things have taken place

Act 1:2 ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας ἐντειλάμενος τοῖς ἀποστόλοις...ἀνελήμφθη
ACRI hHS hHMERAS ENTEILAMENOS TOIS APOSTOLOIS...ANELHMFQH
until that day when he was taken up after having instructed his apostles

Act 1:22 ἕως τῆς ἡμέρας ἧς ἀνελήμφθη
hEWS THS hHMERAS hHS ANELHMFQH
until the day when he was taken up
(notice the unemphatic word order here)

Act 20:18 ἀπὸ πρώτης ἡμέρας ἀφ᾽ ἧς ἐπέβην εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν
APO PRWTHS hHMERAS AF' hHS EPEBHN EIS THN ASIAN
from the first day on/from which I set foot in Asia
(here PRWTOS has taken up the emphatic position. The word is inherently
emphatic.)

Cooper's theory does not stand up to scrutiny, which is easy to see if you look
at relatives in the accusative. The first one in the GNT is in

Mat 2:9: ὁ ἀστήρ, ὃν εἶδον ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ, προῆγεν αὐτούς
hO ASTHR, hON EIDON EN THi ANATOLHi, PROHGEN AUTOIS
the star, which they had seen in the east, went ahead of them

In this case the relative clause qualifies a noun in the nominative. In that way
it is like an adjective and it is part of the noun phrase that functions as
subject in the main clause. A sentence as a whole does not have a function in
another sentence. A sentence does not have a case function. It is phrases that
have syntactic functions in a clause and these functions are marked by case. hON
is accusative above because it is the object of EIDON within the relative
clause.

An interesting example of the nominative relative is found in

Mat 18:28: ἐξελθὼν δὲ ὁ δοῦλος ἐκεῖνος εὗρεν ἕνα τῶν συνδούλων αὐτοῦ, ὃς ὤφειλεν
αὐτῷ ἑκατὸν δηνάρια
EXELQWN DE hO DOULOS EKEINOS hEUREN hENA TWN SUNDOULWN AUTOU, hOS WFEILEN AUTWi
hEKATON DHNARIA
That slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves, who owed him hundred
dinarii

hOS refers back to hENA - the head of the noun phrase "one of his slaves", and
it is in the nominative because it functions as subject in its own relative
clause.

So, attraction does not occur for nominative or accusative antecedents, only for
genitive and dative  - unless someone can show me an example against this
theory.

Iver Larsen


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elizabeth Kline" <kline_dekooning at earthlink.net>
To: "greek B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 15. december 2009 08:49
Subject: [B-Greek] Assimilation of the Relative (was Attraction of theRelative
...)


>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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