From: dalmatia@eburg.com
Date: Sun Apr 19 1998 - 11:40:50 EDT
Carl W. Conrad wrote:
> >
> > OU GAR hO` QELW TOUTO PRASSW =
> > For it's not true that hO` QELW TOUTO PRASSW
> > For it's not the case that I do what I wish to do OR
> > The proposition "I do what I want to do" is incorrect
I have noticed an idiomatic English version of this construction among
high schoolers, which places the OU at the end of the sentence...
Goes something like: "I really like it when Mom makes me clean the
cat box...NOT!"
The OU GAR, introducing a completed thought [a sentence, in English],
carries the whole thought in negation, yes? And the whole thought is
the subsequent 4 words. If hO [QELW] TOUTO is understood as the
'subject', and QELW TOUTO PRASSW the 'object, which allows QELW TOUTO
to distribute its meaning backward and forward to both hO and PRASSW,
which enclose it, the whole thing becomes very tidy indeed!! The
clauses hO QELW and TOUTO PRASSW remain intact on this 'look', btw.
The OU can be connected to either the hO...TOUTO, or the
QELW...PRASSW, but not both. TOUTO does seem emphatic, being a
repetition of hO.
"For NOT what *I* will this *I* do..." is a try that captures at least
SOME sense of the Greek idiom, where the *I*s are stressed, say by
underlining.
George
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