[B-Greek] "Epexegetical phrase" (was "John 2:15--PANTAS ... TA TE PROBATA AND TOUS BOAS")
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Nov 18 10:53:01 EST 2010
On Nov 18, 2010, at 9:08 AM, George F Somsel wrote:
> I think that rather than apposition Carl might have meant epexigetical. For
> those of you in Rio Linda I'll give the advice a teacher I had in junior high
> was fond of dispensing -- "look it up in the dictionary." I hesitate to enter
> this over-the-top discussion since I think it should have ended long ago. Can
> we please stop now?
But you've done so. I would accept "epexegetical" -- but I would just note that
it seems to me pretty much akin to the celebrated "aporetic" categories of
case-usage that have been designated by Wallace in GGBB: it simply says
that this expression is "explanatory" or "clarifying." One speaks especially
of "epexegetical" infinitives, but I honestly believe that we use such expressions
in grammatical explanation when our snippets of text don't fall into our handy
categories and subcategories of traditional grammar. This interminable thread
seems to me illustrative of my proposition that we understand what a Greek
text BEFORE we can analyze it grammatically; when we understand a Greek
text in different ways, we have some difficulty describing adequately WHY
we think that our own understanding of the text "makes more sense" than
the interpretation offered by others. Sometimes we attempt to explain a
snippet of text in terms of a category that it doesn't really fit.
PERI DE TOU DEIN PAUSASQAI DIALEGOMENOUS hEWS BDELUGMIAS
TON DIALOGON TOIOUTON, TIPTE LEGOIMI AN EGWGE? -- AUTOS
GAR POLLAKIS hEUREQHN hEWS BDELUGMIAS LEGWN.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list