From: Paul J. Bodin (pjbodin@sirius.com)
Date: Fri Oct 06 1995 - 12:08:39 EDT
Upon checking my mail log, I noticed that I sent the following messages
to individuals rather than to the list. With apologies to all for my
clumsiness, here they are:
On Fri, 6 Oct 1995, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>At 9:49 AM 10/5/95, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
>> [...]>>1. 9:1 has Qanatou in the genitive. Bauer says that the verb yeuomai takes
>>the accusative. What's the genitive doing here, or rather, what does it
>>signify case-wise?
>
>I really hate to say this, but if Bauer (I assume you mean BAGD) says that
>GEUOMAI takes an accusative, he's flat out wrong. Many verbs of sense
>perception, among them AKOUW, GEUOMAI, AISQANOMAI, regularly take a
>partitive genitive. There's a danger in overrating the authority of a
>lexicon; one ought at least to check it against others and, on a point like
>this, grammars, as this is a point usually dealt with in first-year
>vocabulary lists.
One might add here that there is a danger in treating a lexicon as a
dictionary. A lexicon is not intended to give a simple, one-line
definition as a dictionary attempts to do. If one reads the full
article on GEUOMAI in BAGD and considers the citations, one finds that
GEUOMAI is used both with the accusative, in some contexts, and with the
genitive in other contexts. Considering the citations also gives one a
chance to develop a feel for the shades of meaning that a word may
convey. A good lexicon is an entry point for the student; by following
up on the references one can develop a feeling for the actual usage of a
word _in_situ_ rather than settling for a gloss.
[and a little later...]
On Fri, 6 Oct 1995, Kenneth Litwak wrote:
> Well, I guess that's what I get from trying to translate late in the
>evening while trying to control two little boys, but it really looked to
>me like def #1 fit the context better, and that is supposed to take the
>accusative. Thanks.
Again, if you will read the article closely, you will find that,
according to Bauer, GEUOMAI also takes the genitive in sense #1. The
citations for the genitive usage follow immediately after the citations
for the accusative usage.
_______________________________________________________________________
Paul J. Bodin Internet: pjbodin@sirius.com
Seminary Pastor smail: 1333 66th Street
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary Berkeley, CA 94702
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