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Re: Further question on Word order.
On Mon, 21 Nov 1994, PRAISE G-D FOR ALL THINGS wrote:
> I understand fully that the word order in the Greek does not
> necessarily follow our understanding. The author could place
> the subject any where in the sentence to add emphasis to it.
>
> In an EIMI structured sentence both sides of the verb could be the subject.
> So we could write "In the beginning" or "The Word". I understand what has
> been said about this subject so far. The thing that I do not understand is
> if one of the nouns (for lack of a better word) has an article in front of
> it, I was taught that it goes to the front of the sentence.
> Was I taught wrong, or as was already stated, does the prepositional phrase
> cause me to modify this?
I'm sorry to have to say this, but I think you were taught wrong; in a
sentence in which EIMI links a subject and a predicate word, the
subject-noun normally has the article and normally (i.e. MOST of the
time) follows the verb form while the predicate word takes the initial
position. Thus, normal structure: AGATHOS ESTIN HO ANHR (although you
might also, less frequently, see HO ANHR ESTIN AGATHOS). Similarly, if
the predicate word is a noun, the normal word-order would be KYBERNHTHS
ESTIN HO KRATYLOS, although you might less frequently see HO KRATYLOS
KYBERNHTHS ESTIN and less frequently still HO KRATYLOS ESTI KYBERNHTHS.
Hope this helps rather than confuses.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
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