[B-Greek] The so-called third attributive position
A. Philip Brown II
pbrown at GBS.EDU
Mon Mar 15 20:54:31 EST 2004
Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>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"?<
OK. Let me see if I understand what you are saying:
Appositives add only secondary qualifications to their referent; whereas
"attributives" add primary/essential (?) qualifications to a noun?
If that's what you're saying, I'm not following you.
As you say, "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" --- In this case, I would regard PRWTHN as an attributive
adjective in this construction (an indefinite attributive adjective).
Here's the rule of thumb I've worked with: In the attributive position,
modifiers agree with the word they modify in Gender, Number, Case and
Definiteness/Determination. Admittedly the one construction that is
syntactically ambiguous is an anarthrous noun + anarthrous modifier, in
which case the modifier may be predicate or attributive, depending on
contextual factors.
However, the factor of Definiteness has been very helpful to me, especially
as applied to understanding a participle's relationship to its referent.
Attributive participles always agree in Determination with their referent.
Any articular participle modifying (=GNC) an anarthrous substantive, would
by this definition be substantive and function appositionally, as hO WN does
in John 1:18
What are the syntactic markers you use to distinguish syntactic apposition
from syntactic attribution? Or is this really a matter of semantic elements
distinguishing attribution from apposition?
Philip Brown
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