From: Rolf Furuli (furuli@online.no)
Date: Mon Jan 19 1998 - 14:21:57 EST
On Mon, 05 Jan 1998 Jonathan robie wrote:
<2. Proper names do not have a non-cancellable [+definite] property, as
<evidenced by phrases like TINI SIMWNI BURSEI (Acts 9:43), ANANIAS DE TIS
<(Acts 22:12), TINA SIMWNA KURHNAION (Mark 15:21). Note that nouns are much
<more common than proper names in the GNT, but although names occur with the
<indefinite adjectival pronoun, nouns marked definite with either the
<article or the demonstrative do not. I assume that names with the definite
<article do have a non-cancellable [+definite] property, but I haven't come
<up with a good test for this.
Dear Jonathan,
Due to problems with my new computer I have not been able to comment on
this posting. If I understand you correctly, I think your suggestion
regarding proper names is wrong. I claim that any proper name has a
noncancellable /+definite/ property. A proper name denotes one particular
individual or one particular thing and does not have any property which is
common to several individuals or several things. True, the names Ananias
and Simeon were used for several persons, but they were individually
distinguished by being sons of different persons. In the examples of Mark
15:21and Acts 9:43 there must be an ellipsis in each instance. We should
not think of "a certain Simon" but of "a certain man by the name Simon".
This is clearly seen in Acts 22:12 where TIS is qualifying ANHR and not
ANANIAS. If this is true, there is no evidence that proper names can be
indefinite.
Regards
Rolf
Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo
furuli@online.no
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:38:58 EDT