Lesson 12: Nouns/The Third Declension, Nominal Word Clusters
170. Class 3. Neuter nouns in -τ-
1. The nom. and acc. sing, will be identical;
2. The nom. and acc. plur. end in -α, as do neuter nouns of II.3. and the article (τά).
1700. Class 3. is large and again must be divided into two subclasses: 3.a. neuters in -μα, gen. -ματος, and 3.b. neuters following this declension pattern but having irregular nom. (and therefore acc.) singulars.
171. Class 3.a. Neuter nouns in -μα
ὄνομα, ὀνόματος, τό name |
N | ὄνομα ( < -ματ ) | ὀνόματα |
G | ὀνόματος | ὀνομάτων |
D | ὀνόματι | ὀνόμασι(ν) ( < -ματσι ) |
A | ὄνομα ( < -ματ ) | ὀνόματα |
1710. Notes:
1710.1 The nom. and acc. sing, have no ending. Since τ cannot stand at the end of a word (§923), it is dropped.
1710.2 τ disappears before σ in the dat. plur. (§927).
172. Class 3.b. Other neuter nouns belonging to this class
Nouns in this group may be further subdivided in relation to the form of the nom. and acc. sing.
172.1 stems which have short nom. (and acc.) sing, but not -μα
μέλι, μέλιτος, τό honey οἱνόμελι, οἰνομέλιτος, τό honeyed wine (IgnTr 6:2) γάλα, γάλακτος, τό milk γόνυ, γόνατος, τό knee δόρυ, δόρατος, τό spear (IgnPol 16:2) |
172.2 stems with nom. (and acc.) sing, in -ρ
ὕδωρ, ὕδατος, τό water στέαρ, στέατος, τό fat (I Clem 4:1, Barn 2:5) φρέαρ, φρέατος, τό well |
172.3 stems with nom. (and acc.) sing, in -ας
κέρας, κέρατος, τό horn πέρας, πέρατος, τό end, limit τέρας, τέρατος, τό portent ἅλας, ἅλατος, τό salt |
172.4 stems with nom. (and acc.) sing, in -ς
φῶς, φωτός, τό light οὖς, ὠτός, τό ear |
1720. Notes:
1720.1 Group (1): -τ and -κτ cannot stand at the end of a word (§923). γόνυ, δόρυ are really old υ-stems which have been assimilated to the pattern of τ-stems.
1720.2 Groups (2), (3), (4) have parallel stems in -ρ, -ας, -ς, respectively, and in -τ.
For ἅλας, ἅλατος, τό cf. §1821.4.
1720.4 σάββατον, σαββάτου, τό (II. 3.) has a dat. plur. σάββασιν on the analogy of neuter nouns in -τ- (Bl-D §52).
173. The nom. sing, (lexical form) of neuter nouns in -τ- may be discovered by the following process of elimination:
173.1 acc. sing. = nom. sing.
173.2 drop τ (κτ) plus the ending (dat. plur.: drop -σι[ν])(all class 3.a. nouns and group (1) in class 3.b.).
173.3 drop τ plus the ending (dat. plur.: drop -σι[ν]) and add ρ or σ (Group (2) — (4) of class 3.b.).
173.4 γόνυ, δόρυ and ὕδωρ remain special cases.
1730. A catalogue of class 3.a. nouns appearing in the New Testament ten times or more may be found in Appendix II. A complete catalogue of class 3.b. may be found in §172 and Appendix II.
174. Nominal word clusters with genitive modifiers. The article was considered as structure signal in §§125-129. Additional word groups initiated by prepositions were considered in §§140-147. Another common minimal word cluster consists of one noun (in any case) qualified by another in the genitive case (the relation of the latter to the former is often represented by the preposition of in English: §112.1). One or both nouns may be accompanied by the article. For example,
(1) | τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου the light of the world |
Jn 8:12 |
(2) | τὸ φῶς τῆς ζωῆς the light of life |
Jn 8:12 |
(3) | τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου the son of man |
Jn 8:28 |
(4) | τὰ ῥήματα τοῦ θεοῦ the words of God |
Jn 8:47 |
175. These clusters appear with and without the article(s). The word order may vary. The following examples illustrate the various possibilities.
(5) | τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων | Jn 1:4 |
(6) | υἱοὶ φωτός | Jn 12:26 |
(7) | ἄγγελον φωτός | 2 Cor 11:14 |
(8) | τέκνα φωτός | Eph 5:8 |
(9) | ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ | Jn 1:34 |
(10) | Σίμον, ὁ υἱὸς Ἰωάννου | jn 1:42 |
(11) | Ἰησοῦν, υἱὸν τοῦ Ἰωσήφ | Jn 1:45 |
(12) | ὁ υἱὸς τῆς Μαρίας | Mk 6:3 |
(13) | Φαρισαῖος, υἱὸς Φαρισαῖων | Acts 23:6 |
(14) | τὴν σάρκα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου | Jn 6:53 |
(15) | ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ υἱὸς, Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς | 2 Cor 1:19 |
(16) | ῥήματα ζωῆς | Jn 6:68 |
(17) | ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ | Jn 10:35 |
(18) | ὁ λόγος τοῦ Ἰησοῦ | Jn 18:32 |
(19) | ὁ λόγος τοῦ κυρίου | Acts 12:24 |
(20) | ὁ λόγος τῆς σωτηρίας | Acts 13:26 |
(21) | ὁ λόγος ὁ τοῦ σταυροῦ | 1 Cor 1:18 |
Further treatment of this type of cluster is to be found in §§695ff.
1750. Notes:
1750.1 ῥῆμα = λόγος (in these contexts)
1750.2 Word order may vary:
a) ὁ -ος τοῦ -ου b) ὁ τοῦ -ου -ος c) ὁ -ος ὁ τοῦ -ου (article of the initial term repeated) |
176. In noun identification, attention should be diverted from the single word to the cluster wherever possible. Identification of the noun in context means seizing the noun in relation to the grammatical structure in which it appears. Early facility with nouns depends on the ability to read all the signals, not just the case ending of the nouns.