From: c stirling bartholomew (cc.constantine@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sat May 19 2001 - 12:55:58 EDT
OK, here is an example. I always get asked for an example.
Mark 14:23 reads:
KAI LABWN POTHRION EUCARISTHSAS EDWKEN AUTOIS,
KAI EPION EX AUTOU PANTES.
Now along comes Joe seminarian and asks what kind of genitive is AUTOU in
the clause KAI EPION EX AUTOU PANTES? Some helpful Greek aficionado looks
this up in the ancient archives of Greek grammar and tells Joe that this is
a clear example of a genitive of the type X. Now Joe goes to his second year
text book which is called a grammar and uses the index to find out where
genitives of the type X are discussed and reads that section several times.
Now Joe considers himself well informed on the X type genitive.
What is wrong with this picture?
AUTOU in the clause KAI EPION EX AUTOU PANTES is not a clear example of
anything at all. It is a generic genitive pronoun. All the semantic
information which is "painted" over the constituent AUTOU is derived from
the lexical stock in the immediate context. The collocation of several
principal lexical items such as POTHRION, EPION, and EX determines how
AUTOU will be understood. The case ending provides us with NONE of this
information. This information is painted over the case as mauve paint is
applied to a sheet of wall board. The wall board remains the same "stuff"
with the same meaning but it now looks mauve because it has paint on it.
I will now go back to lurking having addressed the questions that came up in
the private mail I received on this topic. Most everyone seems to want to
talk about this off list.
Clay
--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
PS.
BTW, I got some positive feed back from a really big Greek on this subject.
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