Re: TWi ~ A Relative Pronoun?

From: Jeffrey B. Gibson (jgibson000@mailhost.chi.ameritech.net)
Date: Sat Apr 10 1999 - 19:07:24 EDT


George Blaisdell wrote:

> >From: "Carl W. Conrad"
>
> >I wasn't going to say this but since
> >you've repeated this EN TWi PISTEI, I
> >can't go on without noting that PISTEI is a
> >feminine noun: there's no TWi
> >there at all; it's EN THi PISTEI.
>
> Carl ~
>
> Thank-you ~ I got so focused on the dative issue I lost track of the
> gender. Daah!!
>
> >And for my part, I think you're drawing an altogether facile and
> >questionable assumption that "genitive" case means
> >"genesis" of the noun.
>
> Well, it IS easy [facile seems a tad pejorative!] to understand, and
> the questionability is what this list is all about, yes?
>
> >The term "genitive" may originally have
> >embodied a theory of how a noun in
> >the genitive is related to another word,
> >but this particular theory won't
> >get you very far in explaining either
> >some primary type of genitive or all
> >the varieties of genitive usage.
>
> I would hope not!
>
> The proposition I have put forward is that absent other contextual
> factors ~ as if this sentence were all by itself ~ the genitive case
> without a proposition simply indicates source, or 'genesis', of that
> which it modifies.
>
> And I could easily be wrong...
>
>
> George Blaisdell
> Roslyn, WA
>
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George Blaisdell wrote:

>
> The proposition I have put forward is that absent other contextual
> factors ~ as if this sentence were all by itself ~ the genitive case
> without a proposition simply indicates source, or 'genesis', of that
> which it modifies.
>
> And I could easily be wrong...
>

And I think you are. The problem here is not only that you are once more
letting etymology beguile you, but a false etymology at that, and one which is
itself based upon a misnaming of the case.. As Robinson notes (Big Yellow Tome, 492)
the
"genitive case has the wrong name. The Latin _genitivus_ is a translation of
GENNHTIKH (more like the ablative in idea). It is hH GENIKH PTWSIS. The name GENIKH
comes from GENOS (_genus_). 'kind', and corresponds to the Latin _generalis_.
Priscian so
calls it (generalis casus). It is a pity that one still has to call it [i.e., the
case] "genitive".

A little more homework, and a little less speculation, please, George.

Yours,

Jeffrey Gibson

--
Jeffrey B. Gibson
7423 N. Sheridan Road #2A
Chicago, Illinois 60626
e-mail jgibson000@ameritech.net

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