[B-Greek] Semantic Range of Prepositions

Timothy Lawson tslawson1 at yahoo.com
Tue Mar 23 14:21:30 EDT 2010


Rich,
 
    I notice that in both of your examples EN is the preposition. Wallace's comments are primarily focused on PROS and EIS which are clear of examples of prepositions with a transitive force. It's not as clear to me that EN is equal in transitive force as PROS and EIS.
 
Scotty
 
 




________________________________
From: Richard Lindeman <oblchurch at msn.com>
To: Timothy Lawson <tslawson1 at yahoo.com>
Cc: B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tue, March 23, 2010 10:56:14 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Semantic Range of Prepositions


Actually, I am not so sure that the rule quoted below is quite correctly stated.  One of the real problems for English readers of Greek is when prepositions seem to be used in an unnatural way.  When we see that Greek has a full complement of prepositions as we do in English, but then Greek uses EN at places where "on" seems clearly more appropriate to the English reader.  Or when Greek uses EIS when "in" seems clearly more appropriate to the English reader, etc.  In other words, when prepositions are in effect translated as different prepositions in situations where it makes no sense to the English reader.  After all, if the writer wanted to say "in" then why didn't you use the word "in"? etc. 
 
The rule stated below concerning stative verbs certainly helps, but I don't think the rule is stated quite correctly.
Matt 5:25 hEWS hOTOU EI MET AUTOU EN TH hODW "while you are still with him on the way"
Matt 6:5 EN TAIS GWNIASIS TWN PLATEIWN...  hESTWTES  "standing on the streetcorners"
 
In both of the above examples I suspect a stative verb may be involved in changing the meaning of "in" to "on".  But I don't think it has anything to do with "transivity" of the preposition. 
 
Rich Lindeman 


From: Timothy Lawson 
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 10:08 AM
 
PROS is not the only preposition whose force is overridden by a verb. Virtually all instances of stative verbs with prepositions of motion go in this direction. Note, for example, the uses of EIS with a stative verb. EIS generally has the meaning of movement into from without. However, when it is used with a stative verb, such as THREO, KAQHMAI, EIMI, etc., the idea of motion is negated by the stative verb (cf., THREO EIS in Acts 25:4; KAQHMAI EIS in Mark 13:3). 
 
These texts illustrate a general principle: Stative verbs override the transitive force of prepositions. Almost always, when a stative verb is used with a transitive preposition, the preposition’s natural force is neutralized; all that remains is a stative idea."


      


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