[B-Greek] Dative as an adverb

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 9 18:20:10 EDT 2011


Hi, David,

<Is there a way to tell when a dative form of X is used with the meaning "for
X"?>

Indeed there is.  In the award winning formulation of Mr. George Somsel, Context 
is King, here, there, and everywhere.

< I have always taken it to be "to X" by default when used as an adverb of
a verb unless the verb does not allow "to X".>

Your rule implies that "to X" is the more common sense of the dative as opposed 
to "for X" or "to the disadvantage of X" or "as far as X goes" or "by means of 
X" or "along with X" or a million other ways to construe this case.  You may be 
right.  I haven't counted up the numbers.  But it seems to me that a better rule 
is "Context is King."

ερρωσο

Mark L
Φωσφορος


FWSFOROS MARKOS




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From: =) <p1234567891 at gmail.com>
To: B-Greek List <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Fri, April 8, 2011 10:35:47 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Dative as an adverb

Dear all,

Is there a way to tell when a dative form of X is used with the meaning "for
X"? I have always taken it to be "to X" by default when used as an adverb of
a verb unless the verb does not allow "to X". Does the meaning of such a
dative depend on the verb alone? An example would be Acts 7:46-49: "... and
requested to find [a] tabernacle for the God of Jacob, but Solomon builded
for him [a] house ... the heaven [is] [a] throne for me ... what house will
you build for me?"

David Lim
---
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