From: c stirling bartholomew (cc.constantine@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sat Jul 21 2001 - 13:35:54 EDT
on 7/21/01 9:54 AM, c stirling bartholomew wrote:
> on 7/21/01 8:58 AM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>
>> Let's not go overboard here: there are ablatival genitives that are
>> semantic and distinct from the adnominal genitive that is structural, and
>> there are some partitives as well--and a whole mass of genitives with
>> prepositions as well. I'm not for multiplying categories and subcategories
>> of anything, but I'm not for throwing everything in the same pot without
>> good reasons either.
>
> Carl,
>
> I am not jumping overboard I am suggesting that we make Wallace and Mounce
> walk the plank. :-))
>
> It seems to me that the genitive case can be adequately summed up by saying
> that it is syntactical device that serves a structural purpose not a semantic
> one. Certainly it serves more than one purpose, as you have pointed out but it
> should not be discussed as a semantic contributor to the text since in the
> humble opinion of a number of linguists it does not contribute to the
> semantic layer of the communication model.
>
> The most popular series of text books for seminary greek are leading another
> whole generation of students down a blind ally which will leave them asking
> the wrong questions about the greek cases for the rest of their careers.
>
To clarify a terminology issue I am using "semantic" in reference to the
cases to mean the semantic value of the case alone. My recent rereading of
J.P. Louw (Acta Classica 9:73-88 1966) and SE Porter (Idioms p. 82ff) has
led me to conclude that the "semantic" value of the case alone is for all
practical purposes non-existent. We are much better off to assume that it
does not exist since it reduces the level of nonsense in our discussion of
the case system.
Furthermore, I am suggesting that the contextual meaning that surrounds a
given case form in a given context is not the semantic value of that case in
that context. The case does not determine this contextual meaning. This is
where the recently published popular text books and grammars are leading
students along a dark dead end street. They are being taught that the
genitive case means such and such in this context. This sort of thinking
will lead to nothing but confused and pointless discussions about what does
the genitive case mean in this or that verse. All of this sort of discussion
is just so much noise.
Clay
--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
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