From: Jonathan Robie (jonathan@texcel.no)
Date: Fri Jan 09 1998 - 17:06:01 EST
I'm interested in constructions that use the article as a demonstrative
pronoun, like hO DE EIPEN, hOI DE EIPAN, hH DE EIPEN, hO DE EGERQEIS. I
have just added this to my list of things I don't quite understand about
the article...
1. Wallace's Grammar seems to imply that this use (hO DE EIPEN) is somehow
related to substantivizing MEN...DE: "The article is often used in the
place of a third person personal pronoun in the nominative case. It is only
used this way with the MEN...DE construction or with DE alone. (Thus, hO
MEN...hO DE or simply hO DE.)"
Aren't these two completely different constructions? Isn't hO DE EIPEN a
demonstrative pronoun, where the DE functions as a way of indicating that
the subject has changed? Isn't hO MEN...hO DE just another example of the
substantive-making power of the article applied to MEN...DE? So is there
really any direct relationship between these two uses at all?
2. Why is it that the demonstrative use of the article always seems to
occur with DE? Why is it that it always seems to be a nominative that
refers back to a substantive in an oblique case? This seems like a pretty
obvious violation of agreement, but it also seems to be the way this
construction works. In the cases I have looked at, it makes the object of a
previous sentence the subject of the current sentence, and is most
frequently used to switch the speaker:
John 8:10 ANAKUYAS DE hO IHSOUS EIPEN *AUTH*: GUNAI, POU EISIN? OUDEIS SE
KATEKRINEN? *hH* DE EIPEN: OUDEIS, KURIE.
Is this an adequate explanation of the way this construction works? Is
there a really good discussion of this in one of the grammars?
Jonathan
jonathan@texcel.no
Texcel Research
http://www.texcel.no
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