[B-Greek] PNEUMA hAGION as a proper name

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri May 14 00:51:24 EDT 2010


> So let us return to the linguistic issue: The original question was
> whether PNEUMA hAGION is a proper name because it lacks the article.
> My answer was that this is possible. Then I turned the issue upside
> down by pointing out that the lack of article linguistically speaking
> could also indicate something impersonal. Then I asked if the use of
> the article could be pragmatic.  In other words: Could all the
> examples of the article with PNEUMA hAGION be anaphoric, which means
> that  PNEUMA hAGION semantically speaking is anarthrous, and the
> article is added because of contextual requirements?
>
> Your task, therefore, is to point to one or more examples where the
> article cannot be pragmatic. This is the linguistic issue!

I don't think any of these questions will lead to a clear understanding of the 
use of the article in Greek. A noun phrase does not become a proper name because 
it lacks the article. The lack of the article does not make a referent 
impersonal. The presence of the article does not necessarily indicate anaphoric 
usage (Discourse-old), although that is one of its usages.

Probably the best linguistic treatment of the article is chapter 6 in Hoyle's 
paper that Elizabeth referred to. It covers 30 pages, and I cannot summarize it 
properly here, partly because I have not completed reading the chapter yet, 
partly because it is a rather complex issue.

Hoyle gives the following summary, but you would need to read his paper to 
properly understand it:

"The Greek article with a noun marks that the referent is Hearer-old, which may 
be
either Discourse-old, or Discourse-new and part of an open scenario. Lack of the 
article
with a noun marks that the referent is salient, which may be either 
Discourse-new and
Hearer-new (so naturally salient), or Hearer-old but marked as salient due to 
some higher
discourse function, such as marking clause-level focus, marking theme at higher 
levels of
discourse, or highlighting interpersonal relations."

Iver Larsen 




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