In the Greek New Testament, relative sentences that are introduced by relative pronouns alone, apart from the adverbial uses, are the most frequent subordinate sentence type. The research reported on in this paper aimed to investigate and describe a number of syntactic features of relative constructions in the Greek New Testament, taking account, among others, of some typological parameters that have been developed in the general linguistics literature for these constructions. The results indicate that relative constructions in the Greek New Testament have a variety of features, all of which have counterparts in some modern (or other ancient) languages, despite the differences. The relative sentence in the Greek New Testament is mostly postnominal, and the relative pronoun-type is used in those cases for encoding the role of the coreferential element in the relative sentence. Phrases expressing a variety of syntactic functions in a sentence (e.g. subject, direct object, etc.) are accessible to relativisation, that is, they can be represented by relative pronouns. Nominal elements serve mostly as antecedents of relative sentences, although sentences appear in that function as well. A variety of syntactic types of relative sentences can be distinguished, including the prenominal participial, postnominal finite/participial, circumnominal, free relative, adverbial, prejoined, postjoined, sentential and conjoined types. These can be linked in a systematic way to the four functions of relative sentences in the New Testament, i.e. identifying, appositive, adverbial and continuative. Relative sentences also play a role in communicative strategies. Prejoined relative sentences, for example, are most suitable for exposition and theme-building, especially in the correlative diptych construction.
The traditional view of the function of relative sentences in the Greek New Testament differed markedly from that in many modern languages. This view was challenged in the mid-1980s and a number of striking correspondences with a variety of modern (and some classical) languages were pointed out, despite some differences. The purpose of this article is, amongst others, to explore functional aspects of the relative sentence against this background, and to provide further substantiation for the new view and some new perspectives in the light of recent literature. The conclusion is that the view of the functions of the relative sentence, as developed in the mid-1980s, still seems valid. The view is also supported to a large extent by recent literature, especially with respect to the relative sentence's adjectival use, despite differences relating to nuances and terminology. However, recent New Testament grammars still distinguish so-called 'conditional', 'concessive', 'causal', 'final' and 'resultative' relative sentences as part of their adverbial use, despite strong evidence to the contrary. The conclusion reached is that relative sentences seem to have the following functions in New Testament Greek, which correspond to their functions in numerous modern languages: (1) Identifying a referent(s) with or without an overt nominal antecedent. (2) Providing background or additional information for a nominal or sentential antecedent in the form of a parenthesis, explanation or concession, or some combination of these. (3) Qualifying a verb with regard to time, location or manner. (4) Functioning as a conjoined sentence. Read online:Scan this QR code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. IntroductionThe relative construction, which commonly consists of an antecedent and a relative sentence, is a pervasive phenomenon in the languages of the world, but occurs in a variety of syntactic forms. In view of this, Comrie (1989:142) argues that a functional (semantic, cognitive) definition should be given of the relative construction (in his terms, 'relative clause') which is independent of language-specific syntax. Assuming that restrictive relative sentences are more central to the notion of the relative construction than are non-restrictives, he defines the relative construction as consisting necessarily of a head and a restricting clause (Comrie 1989:143). Whereas the head has a potential range of referents, the restricting clause 'restricts this set by giving a proposition that must be true of the actual referents of the overall construction.' Compare his example, which is repeated here as (1) In (1), the head 'potato' has a range of potential referents, which is limited to one potato by the relative sentence, of which the proposition 'Hasan gave the potato to Sinan' is true (Comrie 1989:142). It should be noted that Comrie's definition includes not only relative constructions that contain finite relative sentences, but also non-finite (e.g. participial) constructions, such as 'leaving on Flight 738' in th...
In this article it is pointed out that in Ancient Greek and Latin %-movement functions in a way similar to that in English and in many other modern languages: the same bounding nodes apply, viz. S ' , S and NP, and the landing site is also in COMP. Differences are that "Pied Piping" as well as "Preposition Stranding" are not allowed in the classical languages. A copying rule in the marginal section of the grammar takes care of the few cases where, after %-movement, a relic is left behind in the form of a personal pronoun. Samevatting. In hierdie artikel word aangetoon dat e -s k u i f in Oud-Grieks en Latyn op 'n soortgelyke wyse funksioneer as in Engels en baie ander rnoderne tale. Dieselfde bindingsknope geld, nl. S ' , S en NP en die "landing site" is ook in COMP. 'n Verskil is dat "Pied Piping" en "Preposition stranding" nie in die klassieke tale toegelaat word nie. 'n Kopierende reel in die marginale onderdeel van die qrammatika hanteer die enkele gevalle waar 'n kopie agtergelaat word tydens e-skuif. Since the inception of transformational grammar the phenomenon wh-movement has received considerable attention, and it has continued to play an important role within that framework. It also forms an important part of the latest model in transformational grammar,. viz. that of the Revised Extended Standard Theory, and here not only of the syntactic component, but also of the PF-and LF-components. Within the syntactic component itself %-movement features as a subtype of the more general transformation "Move a and its movements are restricted by general principles on -
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.