From: Iver Larsen (alice-iver_larsen@wycliffe.org)
Date: Sun Feb 11 2001 - 16:52:49 EST
Moon wrote:
> But my original question was quite simple. If VSO is an abbrevation of
> VP, NP(S), NP(O), this order cannot explain the following example,
> where the verb and the adverb are split:
>
> John 15:25 EMISHSAN ME DWREAN "they hated me without cause"
>
> So I guess that VSO is an abbreviation of V, NP(S), NP(O), and that it
> simply does not take into account adverbials. So, I take word order
> VSO to specify the order constraint between V, NP(S), NO(O). In that
> case, the position of adverbs should be explained by means of
> other constraints. Do I miss something?
The SVO order only addresses the order of the subject, object and verb within
the clause. It does not address the internal structure of the VP or of the NPs
that function as S or O, nor does it address the order of elements within these
phrases. If any of these phrases consists of several constituents, it would be
the head of the phrase that is considered. In your example above the order would
be VO, with no S, and the NP(O) is placed between the V and the Adv. That the
Adv here is placed after the verb in the VP only shows that the semantic idea of
"hate" is more prominent than "without cause".
Greek is rather unusual in allowing both VPs and NPs to be split apart. We
recently looked at
John 12:18 hYPHNTNSEN AUTWi hO OCLOS hOTI HKOUSAN TOUTO AUTON PEPOIHKENAI TO
SHMEION
the crowd went to meet him because they heard he had performed this sign
The infinitive clause that functions as the object/complement of HKOUSAN has the
order SVO, but the NP(O) is TOUTO TO SEMEION, with the modifier TOUTO moved in
front of the S.
Another example of such a split NP we looked at recently was
John 20:30 POLLA MEN OUN KAI ALLA SHMEIA EPOIHSEN hO IHSOUS.
Here the object (head SHMEIA) is fronted to give the order OVS, and this
highlights the concept of "signs" over and above who did them and the fact that
they were done. Within the NP(O) POLLA is fronted again to indicate that the
word "many" is the most prominent part of the various modifiers of "signs".
Iver Larsen
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