[B-Greek] PAROUSIA as a "back-formation"
wheat92 at aol.com
wheat92 at aol.com
Mon Jan 17 14:50:17 EST 2011
Thank you for your quick and thorough response. I need to "think" through the morphology here, but it is terribly exciting to see a detailed and rational explanation. This eliminates the back-formation theory, does it not?
thank again,
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
To: wheat92 <wheat92 at aol.com>
Cc: b-greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Mon, Jan 17, 2011 1:45 pm
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] PAROUSIA as a "back-formation"
n Jan 17, 2011, at 1:06 PM, wheat92 at aol.com wrote:
>
Gentlemen,
After spending some time in the archives on the subject of the derivation and
roper translation of the word "PAROUSIA", I have a question regarding its
erivation. Most argue it is from PAREINI (feminine present participle). Mr.
onrad (Wed. Aug.30, 1995) correctly pointed out that would be "PAROUSA" . The
ifficulty seems to be in morphologically explaining the "i" (iota). Mr. Krentz
same thread)further identified the word as a back-formation of the participial
orm. My question is, if it were a back-formation would it not be more accurate
o say it is from PAROUSIAZW (Liddell Scott, under PAROUSIA, II.2., quoting
non.in EN. 438.6) Since back formations are typically "shortening" of words,
his would seem to resolve the matter without having to do any morphological
ymnastics to account for that pesky iota.
Thank you for your help. My concern really is in finding the quote listed in
iddell Scott. I checked Perseus with no luck, but found a hard copy in a
niversity library about 2 hours away(CAG). If anyone knows if that quote can be
ound online anywhere, I would greatly appreciate it.
I have lurked here for along time. Keep up the great work. This is truly an
ncredible resource, particularly for non-linguists and non-scholars, such as
yself.
Rick Glau
Arcadia, Fla.
Wow! Into the archives of 1995!
The word παρουσία (PAROUSIA) doesn't really present a problem. It derives from
he verb πάρειμι [PAREIMI], which is itself a compound of παρά [PARA] and εἰμί
EIMI]. This noun doesn't derive from the participle itself but rather from the
articipial root of the primary verb εἰμί [EIMI], that root being οντ- [ONT-].
bstract nouns are regularly formed from adjectival roots with the ending -ία
-IA] -- see Smyth, §859 Vowel suffixes 6 (http://artflx.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.9:5:3:1.perseusmonographs),
o that here we'd have ὀντία [ONTIA]. But here phonetic factors enter in: T
ollowed by I shifts to S, yielding ONSIA; then the -N- between O- and -S-
vanesces and the O lengthens by compensation to OU, The end-result is OUSIA.
ou might note that there is a noun OUSIA derived directly from the verb EIMI
nd that it has a number of different meanings, "being," "substance," "essence"
n philosophical usage, and "property" in terms of real estate. There are other
ouns derived from compounds of EIMI also SUNOUSIA from SUNEIMI, EXOUSIA from
XESTI.
Rather than assuming that PAROUSIAZW derives from PAROUSIA, it's surely simpler
nd more accurate to say that PAROUSIAZW derives from the noun PAROUSIA. -AZW
erbs are ordinarily "denominatives' -- derived from nominal stems.
Carl W. Conrad
epartment of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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