Re: Compound subjects with hH?

From: Paul Zellmer (zellmer@cag.pworld.net.ph)
Date: Sat Sep 05 1998 - 10:59:57 EDT

Carl W. Conrad wrote:

> At 3:12 AM -0500 9/05/98, Paul Zellmer wrote:
> >In our review of James 2:14-16, we came across in verse 15 the following
> >construction:
> >
> >EAN ADELFOS hH ADELFH GUMNOI hUPARXWSIN ...
> >
> >with the plural form being used hereafter. I would have expected the hH
> >to have resulted in the use of a *singular* verb and adjective. Is it
> >just my English grammar coming through, or do we have an unusual switch
> >from singular to plural? If it is ununusual, what, if anything, is the
> >significance?
>
> My text reads ADELFOS )\H ADELFH, i.e. not an article between the two
> nouns, but rather the conjunction used for "or" (or, with a comparative
> word, "than").

A transcription error on my part. But not an error in identification. It is the
conjunction that is causing the problem. "Or" would result in the selection of one
or the other option of subjects. The resultant number would be singular, or so I
would expect. Yet the passage has everything plural from this point on. My question
repeated: How can this be? Other examples of )/H in the subject that I have found
seem to have *singular* verb agreement.

Paul 

--
Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
Ibanag Translation Project
Cabagan, Philippines

zellmer@faith.edu.ph

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