Some time ago, we had a discussion on the word order in NT Greek as to what
one might ordinarily expect to find. Ward expressed the opinion that, when
an externally stated Subject, a stated Verb, and a stated Object (or
Predicate Nominative) occurred, the expected word order would be O V S. I
disagreed with that but had no actual evidence at the time to back up my
claim that the normally expected order would be S V O. So I took up a study.
It has gone slowly (this is hardly the only thing I have to do) and I won't
bore anyone (who doesn't care about such things) with a write up of my
investigations (it is already verrrrrry long), but I have given a summary of
my findings. If anyone would like to see the gory details, e-mail me and
I'll send a copy along to you.
NOTE: My main concern here, and the sole purpose in my study, is to determine
the order of the *other* constituent parts (Object, Verb, Subject within
Greek clauses.
I have looked at all of the occurrences where a verb is found with either an
externally stated subject or an object. This has not been restricted to
finite verb forms; Infinitives which had either a subject or object stated
have been included. Participles, when they formed a clause or phrase with a
subject or an object have also been counted.
After 6 Chapters of investigation in the Gospel of Matthew, I have found 403
occurrences of a verbal form with either an externally stated subject or an
object (or predicative nominative in the cases where the verb is a copula).
Of these, 124 contain both an externally stated subject and an object. Of
these, the order in which the three constituent parts occurred break down
thus:
S V O[PN] = 81 or 65.3%
S O[PN] V = 21 or 16.9%
V S O[PN] = 10 or 8.0%
V O[PN] S = 3 or 2.4%
O[PN] S V = 7 or 5.6%
O[PN] V S = 2 or 1.6%
124
Of the 218 occurrences of an externally stated subject (ignoring the presence
or absence of an object/pred. nom.), the order breaks down as:
S V = 164 or 75.2%
V S = 54 or 24.8%
218
Of the 302 occurences of an Object/Pred. Nom. (ignoring the presence or
absence of a Subject) with the verb, the order breaks down as:
V O[PN] = 233 or 77.1%
O[PN] V = 69 or 22.8%
302
It seems plain that, in the portion of the New Testament that I have examined
so far (Matthew 1:1-6:34), in the great majority of cases where all three
constituent parts are present (S O[PN] V) the order is S O[PN] V, (almost two
thirds of the occurrences); the order of O[PN] V S occurs only two times out
of 124 (less than 2%). When a subject and verb are both stated, the subject
is about three times as likely to precede the verb than otherwise. When an
object/pred. nom. are both stated, the object/pred. nom. is more than three
times as likely to follow the verb than otherwise.
I'm not sure how long I will continue this (what some might consider)
insanity; maybe until I've proven my case conclusively to the world (fat
chance), or at least, to myself.
In any case, I'll continue for now.
God Bless,
Rev. Craig R. Harmon.