From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Feb 02 1999 - 08:15:02 EST
At 11:20 AM -0800 2/1/99, George Blaisdell wrote:
>>From: "Carl W. Conrad"
>
>>EIS : PROS = EN : PRO
>
>This is so obvious that I flew right on past. Thanks, Carl. And the
>first thing that arose for me is old Mr. Sigma showing up here ~ Highly
>sigmificant! :-)
>
>Because *IF* the letter sigma in the Greek alphabet is a letter that has
>connection with the future, with potential events, with present tendency
>toward future happenings... Then a lot of things begin falling into
>cognitive place, yes?
>
>>EN refers to stationary position in space or time,
>
>No sigma = stationary = Present
>
>>while EIS (EN + S) refers to temporal or spatial directionality with
>>reference to a position in space or time
>
>Presence of sigma = Directionality [spatial/temporal] = Future
>[potentiality]
>
>>or to a notion that is conceived metaphorically as
>>analogous to a position in space and time (as when EIS is used with >an
>accusative in a phrase of purpose or result);
>
>And this would NOT entail mere 'position', but position plus,
>directionality, either with or without movement, but with the solid
>future potential for movement, yes?
George: Before you allow that untrammeled imagination to leap into the deep
with your readiness to equate all the instances of morphologically
functioning -S-, you had better consider a few more:
--with -W- in the adverbial suffix -WS
--nominative sg. ending (1 decl. masc., 2 decl. O-stems, 3 decl.
consonant stems, -I- stems, -U- stems; active ptc. stems in
-NT-
--with -E- in the nominative pl. ending -ES (3 decl.)
--with -AI- in the dative pl. ending -AIS (1 decl.), -OI- in the dative
pl. ending -OIS (2 dec.), with -I- in the dative pl. ending -SI
(3 decl.)
--with -N- in the accusative pl. ending (historical 1 decl. -AS; 2
decl. -OUS; 3 decl. -AS)
--in 2 sg. pronouns (SU, SOU, SOI, SE, even if these derive from an
earlier TU, TyOU, TOI, TE)
--in 2 sg. verb morphology (primary & secondary active -S; primary MP
-SAI; secondary MP -SO)
I am sure that you'll master the data and ultimately discover some
applicability of a universal sign of something in all these instances of
Sigma functioning in Greek morphology; I'm just curious as to what it will
turn out to be.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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