[B-Greek] Justin and objective genitives
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Mar 8 12:06:42 EST 2011
On Mar 8, 2011, at 11:43 AM, Rob Richardson wrote:
>> From: Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
>> I would not think so. On the other hand, I am rather dubious of the distinction
>> made between "subjective" and "objective" genitives on the basis of whether the
>> head noun is a noun of action. I think that any genitive of this sort attached
>> to a noun like APOMNHMONEUMATA could mean either "notations of (made by) X" or
>> "notations of (concerning) X." Of course, had the author taken pains to make a
>> differentiation clear, s/he might have written APOMNHMONEUMATA GEGRAMMENA hUPO +
>> gen. or APOMNHMONEUMATA PERI TOU/TWN ... But I really don't think there's any
>> grammatical rule that will resolve the question whether he intended these memos
>> to be "composed by him" or to be "concerning him." I just don't think the
>> question can be resolved on a grammatical basis. Sorry.
>
> Carl,
> May I ask for a bit of clarification as to your view on this? If the
> head noun is a verbal noun and there is no ambiguity as to whether it
> is subjective or objective, then is the exegete on firm ground to
> consider that the genitive noun is either the subject or object of a
> verb that is "extracted" from the verbal noun?
Either/Or? I would rather put it that it COULD mean that. I still
think we're talking about how we translate the Greek into English
(or another target language) rather than about what the Greek
unambiguously indicates. "Love stories" could mean stories
about love or it could mean lies told by lovers. All that any
Greek genitive case attached to a Greek noun tells you is that
the former noun is related in some way to the latter. Only your
context can enable you to narrow the possibilities of relationship.
If the head noun is a verbal noun, certain possibilities are
suggested, such as that the genitive noun is the performer or
the object of the verbal noun.
I think we go round and round on this matter. There are some
who want to feel confident that some rule of grammar will
always cough up an unambiguous indication about a text. In
fact, I think, most speakers and writers use language much more
loosely than that and do not specify precisely which of one or
more possible meanings of the expression they use is
intended. A great deal of our communication takes place
outside of the words we speak and write. If that were not so,
the world might just possibly be a more peaceful place.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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