Re: Mk 3:1 (To Dale )

From: Moon-Ryul Jung (moon@saint.soongsil.ac.kr)
Date: Sun Mar 12 2000 - 09:23:34 EST


Carl,

On 03/12/00, ""Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu>" wrote:
> At 7:28 AM -0600 3/12/00, Moon-Ryul Jung wrote:
> >Carl,
> >
> >In this case, do you consider the participial clause
> >EXHRAMMENHN EXWN THN XEIRA to be in attribute position
> >with respect to the preceding word ANQRWPOS?
> >
> >The translation "a man with one hand that was withered" suggests that.
>
> No, I'd consider it predicative, but I don't think that all the grammatical
> distinctions to be made in the Greek text carry over into English
> translation (as I said, I wouldn't quibble with the translation "a man with
> a withered hand" for the reason that it adequately conveys in ordinary
> English what the Greek says. If I were really being nit-picky, I'd say "a
> man who had one hand that was withered"--I do think both participial
> phrases are adjectival--but ordinary English doesn't commonly make that
> sort of distinction.
>

Let me characterize first the distinction between attribution and
predication.
I remember example sentences I learned from the textbook:

(a) He has a friend who (or that) is very kind.
(b) He has a friend, who is very kind.

In (a) the relative clause is used to define or qualify a friend of his.
In (b), the speaker has already in mind a particular friend, and describes
him to be very kind. So, the relative clause in (a) is attributive, while
the relative clause in (b) is predicative.

So, the question on Mark 3:1 comes down to whether (1) or (2) is a
correct understanding:

(1) There was a man there, who had one hand, which was withered.
(2) There was a man there who had one hand, which was withered.

(I excluded "..... a hand that was withered" because
the hand is referred by "THN XEIRA", and is already in focus
rather than being defined by "withered")

You think that (1) is the right understanding. It means the speaker
has a particular person in mind at the point when "there was a man
there" is uttered, and the speaker continues to describe him with
additional predication. It seems fine. But the speaker may have uttered
"a person with his hand" in one breath. In this case, the clause
EXWN THN ZEIRA (with his hand) can be thought of as attributive.
I wonder why you think this clause is predicative.

Moon
Moon R. Jung
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea

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