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Semantic range of καθώς / ὡς

Posted: August 26th, 2013, 8:58 am
by Jonathan Robie
I am trying to determine to what extent the semantic ranges of καθώς / ὡς differ.

What clear distinctions can be made?

Re: Semantic range of καθώς / ὡς

Posted: August 26th, 2013, 10:31 am
by Barry Hofstetter
Well, the short answer is that καθώς is used mostly for comparison sorts of statements, and ὡς not only for comparison, but a whole host of other things. Really, the lexicons should be of great help here.

Re: Semantic range of καθώς / ὡς

Posted: August 26th, 2013, 10:59 am
by Jonathan Robie
Barry Hofstetter wrote:Well, the short answer is that καθώς is used mostly for comparison sorts of statements, and ὡς not only for comparison, but a whole host of other things. Really, the lexicons should be of great help here.
Thanks - I should have turned to the lexicons first.

I'm not interested in the non-comparison meanings of ὡς here, I'm mostly interested in how the two words differ when used for comparisons.

Re: Semantic range of καθώς / ὡς

Posted: August 27th, 2013, 8:01 am
by David Lim
Jonathan Robie wrote:I'm not interested in the non-comparison meanings of ὡς here, I'm mostly interested in how the two words differ when used for comparisons.
Roughly "ως X" specifies "similarity to X", whereas "καθως" specifies "same as X in some aspect". This explains why it is typically "καθως" that is used with "ουτως" or "ωστε". In cases without negation it is approximately "as" and "just as" respectively. The usual inadequacies of glosses apply. :)