[B-Greek] The so-called third attributive position

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Mar 15 17:34:38 EST 2004


At 3:32 PM -0500 3/15/04, A. Philip Brown II wrote:
>Fellow B-Greekers,
>
>I have for a number of years harbored the suspicion that the so-called
>"third attributive position" with adjectives (as well as participles, or
>other items functioning adjectivally) is an illegitimate category and is not
>an attributive position at all.  It strikes me rather as an appositional
>construction, which, because it is translated into ENGLISH as an adjective
>phrase, has been falsely considered an attributive position.
>
>Common examples of this construction in the NT include:
>
>Luke 15:22 	TACU EXENEGKATE STOLHN THN PRWTHN
>
>John 1:18	MONOGENHS QEOS hO WN EIS TON KOLPON TOU PATROS EKEINOS
>EXHGHSATO
>
>Luke 23:49 ... KAI GUNAIKES hAI SUNAKOLOUQOUSAI AUTWi APO THS GALILAIAS
>hORWSAI TAUTA.
>
>I am willing to give up my harbored suspicions of illegitimacy, but I would
>like to have a decent reason to give students as to why this should not be
>considered further specification by apposition, and instead should be
>considered an attributive position.

I do believe it is attributive but I have argued on this forum on at least
one other occasion that the article-adjective phrase DOES function in a
sort of appositional sense; in part this has to do with the origin of the
article as a weak demonstrative in the sense "the one"--so that the first
illustrative sentence above may be understood as "Quickly fetch a gown, the
very best one." That is to say, the phrase distinctly indicates the noun
back to which it refers as not simply 'ANY gown whatsoever.' It's
attributive because it's not simply adding a secondary qualification about
the gown. Without the article (i.e. if it were phrased TACU EXENEGKATE
STOLHN PRWTHN, the gown would be a high-quality one, but it would not be
the very best; I'd English the clause if so worded "Quickly fetch a gown,
one that is of very good quality." But isn't that different from "Quickly
fetch a gown--the very best-quality one"?

You second example--John 1:18--is to the point in that it makes clear that
the attributive phrase (in this instance an article with substantival
participle) functions as a relative clause specifying WHICH QEOS is
referred to. The same is true of the third instance where it's customary
even to translate the articular participle as a relative clause: "And the
women who had been following him from Galilee ..."
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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