[B-Greek] Position of Prepositional Phrases in Paul

Steve Runge srunge at logos.com
Mon May 17 09:50:30 EDT 2010


Hi Kristan,

Based on your example, I'd say that you want to be looking at works on information structure, the study of intentional ordering and shaping of the text by authors based on their objectives. There is idiolect involved, but the writers are also following standard principles in how they go about implementing their style. I think it would be difficult to really understand the placement of prepositional phrases without a more general understanding of the system. They are only one of many parts that can be pragmatically moved.

Nick Bailey recently completed a very sound treatment on information structure in Koine, so his introductory chapters would be worth consulting. Another more general treatment using the same basic approach is presented in Stephen Levinsohn's "Discourse Features of the Greek New Testament (Dallas, SIL, 2000). Finally, I have provided a more basic introduction of the same approach in "Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament," (Bellingham: Logos Bible Software, 2010; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, forthcoming).

Others have taken a statistically-based approach by examining frequency of occurrence, such as Ivan Kwong's "The Word Order of the Gospel of Luke: Its Foregrounded Messages," (London: T&T Clark, 2005). I would suggest that you read my review of this approach, as there are a number of presuppositions involved that its implementers seem to overlook (http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/5903_6264.pdf). 

Whatever the approach, I suggest you develop a broader understanding of the principles before trying to specifically tackle the issue of prepositions. They can only be properly understood in light the broad context. If you want more specifics, please contact me off list.

Hope this helps,

Steven E. Runge
Scholar-in-Residence
Logos Bible Software 
srunge at logos.com 
www.logos.com
www.ntdiscourse.org

-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Kristan Slack
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 10:18 PM
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [B-Greek] Position of Prepositional Phrases in Paul

Hi all,

This is my first post on the list. I'm at student at Moore College in Sydney and have been doing a little research on whether Paul has his own idiolectic placement of prepositional phrases. In particular I've been trying to isolate prepositional phrases which sit between a noun and come before the verb to which the noun is related (that is, NOUN + PREP + VERB) - such that the preposition is sandwiched between the two items).

An example is found in Romans 5:8

CRISTOS hUPER hHMWN APEQANEN



I've tried (to no avail) to find information about the placement of prepositional phrases (both in general and of this particular kind), both in searching the b-greek archives but also in grammars.

I was just wondering if the list had wisdom about this kind of usage?

(I've noticed a few things myself: it occurs with EIMI verbs, especially in John; 1/3 of the ones I found across the NT are with passives or middle forms).

My more general question is, has anything been written regarding the positioning of prepositional phrases, or of idiolect and prepositional phrases?

thanks in advance,

Kristan Slack

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