[B-Greek] Question concerning syntax
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Jan 28 07:09:16 EST 2009
On Jan 27, 2009, at 8:30 PM, learngreek at aol.com wrote:
> Hi all on the B-Greek list, if I may, B-Greekers : )
>
> I'm trying to get through intermediate NTG and I'm stumbling on
> nouns.
>
> I'm using D & M's book, so my answers should from the categorizes
> they give,
> if possible.
>
>> From 2 Thess 2:7 TO GAR MUSTHRION HDH ENERGEITAI THS ANOMIAS
> What category would, the mystery of lawlessness be under, that is,
> what type
> of genitive?
>
> Considering I must do this for my project, what's the best why to
> get the
> correct answers here, I'm just starting, so I'll just go through
> each category,
> genitive of inscription, genitive of possession & so on.
> I really have no way to check, even if I get the correct answer,
> unless this
> was a test, which it isn't, I'm just translating 2 Thessalonians.
If it's a matter of understanding the difference between two
categories or subcategories of genitive usage, we might be able to
help you, but from what you have told us, it appears that you have not
the first idea of how the categories of genitive usage differ from
each other and you are, in effect, asking list-members to do your
homework for you when you have no idea how to begin doing it. My first
inclination upon reading your message was to suggest: If you can
translate MUSTHRION THS ANOMIAS as "mystery of lawlessness," and
understand what that phrase means, you really don't need to go any
further: it is an adnominal (= adjectival) genitive wherein the noun
in the genitive indicates something pertaining to the noun on which it
depends. Some grammars call that "possessive"; I've learned to call it
"pertinentive"; most grammars tend to subdivide the "possessive" or
"pertinentive" into a slew of subcategories never dreamed of by Greek
speakers or writers. I don't know what Dana & Mantey's subcategories
might be nor even what their preferred term for an adnominal genitive
is. If you really don't understand D&M's account of genitive
constructions, then you probably need to go back to your first-year
textbook and review everything said about genitive constructions
there. Again, my own sense of MUSTHRION THS ANOMIAS is that if you can
English it as "mystery of lawlessness" or as "lawlessness mystery",
then you don't really need to go any farther than that. But I would
guess that's not the sort of solution that your homework assignment
envisions.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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