φύλαττε τὰ σά

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Andrew Chapman
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φύλαττε τὰ σά

Post by Andrew Chapman »

Κἂν ἀδιόρθωτος μένῃ, κἂν κλέπτῃ, φύλαττε τὰ σά· [from Chrysostom, Homily 15 to the Ephesians]
Yea, and if she remain incorrigible, yea, though she steal, take care of thy goods, [NPNF]

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't know whether the gender of a possessive pronoun depends on the gender of the person one is speaking to, or on the gender of the substantive that it is an attribute of, if that is the way to put it. I think it's the latter, in which case its form is the same whether the person one is addressing is male or female, but I would like to check.

Specifically, is the σά above neuter, agreeing with τὰ? Does it tell you anything about whether the person is masculine or feminine?

(I have looked at more than one grammar, but not found a clear statement on this.)

Thanks, Andrew
Stephen Carlson
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Re: φύλαττε τὰ σά

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Possessive adjectives agree in gender with the thing possessed (the possessum), not the possessor.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Andrew Chapman
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Re: φύλαττε τὰ σά

Post by Andrew Chapman »

Thanks, Stephen, much appreciated. Andrew
cwconrad
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Re: φύλαττε τὰ σά

Post by cwconrad »

I'm not sure whether it was ever made clear, however, that in this instance, τὰ σά is a substantive: the neuter plural adjective is clarified as being substantival in nature by the addition of the article, so that, in woodenly-literal English, the phrase means "your (things)." You need to draw a clear distinction between the pronoun (σύ, σοῦ, σοί, σέ) and the pronominal adjective (σός, σή, σόν); the pronoun has only the four case-forms, the adjective, on the other hand, has forms for each gender and case. If that was already clear, sorry for the additional baggage.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Andrew Chapman
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Re: φύλαττε τὰ σά

Post by Andrew Chapman »

Thanks, Carl, I can see that I used 'substantive' incorrectly. The issue arose because I had been looking at the reflexive pronouns σαυτοῦ and σαυτῆς, whose form changes according to the gender of the possessor, not of the possessum, to make immediate use of this new addition to my vocabulary. τὰ σαυτοῦ if it's a man, τὰ σαυτῆς if it's a woman. I wanted to confirm that it is the other way around for pronominal adjectives: τὰ σά, whether it's a man or woman, as in English.

Andrew
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