From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 20 2000 - 15:51:51 EDT
At 7:32 PM +0200 6/20/00, Roe wrote:
>Well, since the forum is relatively slow today...
>
>Luke 14:26
>
>EI TIS ERCETAI PROS ME KAI OU MISEI TON PATERA hEAUTOU KAI THN MHTERA
>KAI GUNAIKA...
>
>We see (here by "...KAI GUNAIKA") that in such passages the masculine
>indefinite pronoun TIS refers to a male. (Another example: 1 Corinthians
>7:12 EI TIS ADELFOS GUNAIKA ECEI APISTON...)
>
>Yet in most cases the masc singular TIS just as obviously refers to a
>person of either gender (as the English "one", or the German "man"):
>
>Luke 9:23 ...EI TIS QELEI OPISW MOU ERCESQAI ARNHSASQW hEAUTON...
>
>My question:
>
>What is the "rule" in those many cases where the context does not
>determine the gender to be male? Is one always to assume the masc
>singular TIS refers to either gender in cases where the context does not
>identify the gender as male?
Well, the classical assumption has always been that if a pronoun or
adjective of common gender does not have a clearly specified referent with
specific gender, we should understand it as masculine. But quite frankly, I
don't see any reason why we should do that. It is wrong to understand the
singular pronoun TIS or the plural pronoun TINES as fundamentally
masculine; rather it is of both genders, just like compound adjectives
(e.g. AQANATOS/AQANATON, EUPOROS/EUPORON). The only clearly distinguishing
factor is therefore going to be an article or an unmistakably masculine
pronoun being used with it. Nor does your example from Lk 9:23 (and
parallels in the other synoptics) really seem to me masculine-specific even
though a masculine reflexive pronoun is being used. In other words, I think
the final statement above is really valid: We should assume that the. sg.
TIS (I wouldn't even call it 'the masculine' TIS) refers to either gender
unless the context makes it quite clear that the gender is exclusively
masculine.
For what it's worth, Philippians 2:1 is interesting: EI TIS OUN PARAKLHSIS
EN CRISTWi, EI TI PARAMUQION AGAPHS, EI TIS KOINWNIA PNEUMATOS, EI TIS
SPLAGCNA KAI OIKTIRMOI ... Here Paul first uses TIS with the feminine
PARAKLHSIS, then the neuter TI with the neuter PARAMUQION, then TIS again
with the feminine KOINWNIA, and finally, seemingly very strangely, TIS with
a combination of neuter plural and masculine plural which I would assume
should be understood as a hendiadys for the idea of 'compassionate feeling.'
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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