From: Carlton Winbery (winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net)
Date: Thu Apr 08 1999 - 05:57:18 EDT
C. Navarro wrote;
>Languages have different grammatica structure. In Greek, the article may
>be used
>in two syntactical constructions. Konstantinos says:
>
>hH ARQROU SUNTACIS ESTI TOIADE:
>
>TO MEN EPIQETON hEPOMENON TWi ARQRWi ONOMAZETAI
>PROSDIORISMOS. TO DE MH hHPOMENON KATHGORHMA H
>KATHGOROUMENON LEGETAI. P. X.
>
>PROSDIORISMOI:
>
> hH PRESBUTEROS PAIS PARWN ETUGXANE
>
>KATHGOROUMENA
>
> hO ANHR AGAQOS
>
>hOTAN hH FRASIS EXHi KATHGOROUMENON EPIQETON, hO NOUS ESTI
>hOMOION THi FRASEI EXOUSHi SUNDETION RHMA - SUNDETIKA RHMATA
>ESTI: EIMI, GIGNETAI, FAINOMAI, K.T.L.
>
>To make a long story short, the article can be used in two syntactic
>constructions:
>Prosdiorismon and Kategoroumenon. When it is used in a Prosdiorismon, it is
>more or less like the English article (I guess, because my English is not
>that good).
>
>In the Prosdiorismon construction, the article precedes the EPIQETA
>(expressions
>that reduces the extension of the name; EPIQETA can be adjectives,
>prepositional phrases, genitives, or even a name used to restrict the
>meaning). More
>often than not, the EPIQETA becomes sandwiched between the article and the
>name.
>
>In the Kategoroumenon construction, the article doesn't precedes the EPIQETA.
>This construction carries the force of verbs like "to be" and "to become",
>which in Greek are called SUNDETIKA RHMATA (I don't know the English name).
>Now, pay attention to this point (which was not emphasized
>by Konstantinos because he probably didn't know languages with a fixed word
>order, like English, French, and Portuguese): In Greek, the word order is
>free.
>Therefore, the Prosdiorismon can be constructed in many ways, the only
>requirement
>being that the EPITHETA follow the article. Therefore, you have a very good
>example of Prosdiorismon in the sentence below:
>
>"EN PISTEI ZW THi TOU hUIOU TOU QEOU."
>
>The EPIQETON (clw: this means "adjective") is the genitive TOU hUIOU.
>
>This sentence could also be written as:
>
>"EN THi TOU hUIOU TOU QEOU PISTEI ZW." (clw: everything between the
>article and the noun it agrees with modifies the noun.)
>
>Here you have an interesting construction. The article that precedes QEOU
>is not the article of that precedes hUIOU. This means that, with respect to
>the article that precedes hUIOU, TOU QEOU is in the Kategoroumenon
>construction. In other words, you can consider that a SUNDETIKON verb
>is linking TOU hUIOU to TOU QEOU. This verb cannot be explicitly expressed
>because its name is in the genitive case. Remember: SUNDETIKON verbs can
>be expressed when its name is in the nominatve. Otherwise, they must be
>represented by the Kategoroumenon construction.
>
>This second version would mean the same thing, but would reduce the
>emphasis given to PISTEI.
>
>Let's see the second example. Here, you have a name that is not followed
>by the article. In this case, the Kategoroumenon construction has the force
>of a SUNDETIKON verb. However, that verb is much weaker than the
>verb of a relative clause.
>SAULOS, hO KAI PAULOS = Saulos is became Paulos too, or Saulos is Paulos too.
>
>With the relative pronoun, the verb would be emphasized, and the dicothomy
>be/become
>must be resolved.
>
>SAULOS hOS ESTI KAI PAULOS= Saulos, who is Paulo too.
Carl replied to this by pointing out that the two words PROSDIORISMOI and
KATHGOROUMENA mean attributive and predicative respectively. I agree with
this. I want to make some further comments on the discussion above.
In reality both of these terms in modern Greek imply a further explanation
or definition. They make those additional assertions in different ways. C.
Navarro is certainly correct in his emphasis for PROSDIORISMOS where the
modifying word or words follow the article as in THi TOU hUIOU. Again my
assertion was that the article shows that the modifying element modifies
PISTEI because the article agrees (concord) with this word in case, gender
and number.
On the other hand KATHGOROUMENA is the middle participial form of the verb
KATHGOREW which means to categorize (most time in the sense of accuse) or
to assign some meaning to. C. Navarro uses the clause hOTAN hH FRASIS EXHi
KATHGOROUMENON EPIQETON. EPIQETON in modern Greek means "added." This
adjective with the neuter article means "adjective." However, the modifying
is done in a different manner as C. Navarro shows. It is best to think of
this expression as needing a SUNDETIKON verb (connecting verb). His using
the TOU hUIOU TOU QEOU to show this relationship can be a little confusing.
The relationship between hUIOU and TOU QEOU is the genitival relationship
in which the second word in the genitive simply modifies the first noun
(and usually in Greek follows the word it modifies but not always). A
better example of KATHGOROUMENON EPIQETON surely is SAULOS, hOS KAI PAULOS
(as Carl pointed out). This is what we call in English "apposition," eg.
"This is my brother, John." Brother is John. (Saul is also Paul.) In the
punctuation of the GNT most editors will set such clear examples (egs.) off
by a comma.
Man, we got a lot of discussion out of such a simple construction as EN
PISTEI ZW THi TOU hUIOU TOU QEOU. "I live by trusting the Son of God." (If
indeed TOU hUIOU is objective genitive!) Nouns of action are nouns in Greek
that express a verbal idea. You can have objective and subjective genitives
only with such nouns. Most nouns in Greek which also have a verb form
(cognate) are nouns of action, i.e., PISTIS and PISTEUW.
Carlton L. Winbery
Fogleman Professor of Religion
Louisiana College
Pineville, LA 71359
winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net
winbery@andria.lacollege.edu
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