ἀνθ’ ὧν in syntax trees

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Jonathan Robie
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ἀνθ’ ὧν in syntax trees

Post by Jonathan Robie »

I would like to discuss an open issue on the representation of ἀνθ’ ὧν in syntax trees. Here's a sentence where it is used:
Luke 1:20 wrote:ἀνθ’ ὧν οὐκ ἐπίστευσας τοῖς λόγοις μου, οἵτινες πληρωθήσονται εἰς τὸν καιρὸν αὐτῶν
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
cwconrad
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Re: ἀνθ’ ὧν in syntax trees

Post by cwconrad »

I haven't even looked this up in BDAG, but my instinctive sense is that ἀνθῶν should be written as one word, like ἱνατί and διότι: "because," "for the reason that," "on account of because ... ", "because of the fact that ... " This is where I have trouble with the doctrine that "choice means difference." I think "Six of one and half a dozen of another"; I think rhetorical variation.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Stephen Carlson
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Re: ἀνθ’ ὧν in syntax trees

Post by Stephen Carlson »

For what it's worth, BDAG does not have ἀνθ' ὧν (or ἀνθῶν) as a separate entry, but it does list this under sense (4) of ἀντί as
W. attraction of the rel. ἀνθ' ὧν in return for which = because
At some point these collocations become particles in their own right.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
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