Semantics of Γινώσκω

Semantic Range, Lexicography, and other approaches to word meaning - in general, or for particular words.

Semantics of Γινώσκω

Postby MAubrey » November 11th, 2012, 6:58 pm

Looking through the lexicons, there's a consistency of listing a couple different (major) senses for γινώσκω.

  • come to know / arrive at knowledge of something / learn
  • know / be in a state of knowledge
I'm curious as to whether anyone would view one of these senses as more basic than another. That is, does this verb first and foremost denote a change of state from ignorance to knowledge or does it fire and foremost denote simply being in a state of knowledge?

Or are both senses equally basic?
Mike Aubrey
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Re: Semantics of Γινώσκω

Postby cwconrad » November 11th, 2012, 9:49 pm

MAubrey wrote:Looking through the lexicons, there's a consistency of listing a couple different (major) senses for γινώσκω.

  • come to know / arrive at knowledge of something / learn
  • know / be in a state of knowledge
I'm curious as to whether anyone would view one of these senses as more basic than another. That is, does this verb first and foremost denote a change of state from ignorance to knowledge or does it fire and foremost denote simply being in a state of knowledge?

Or are both senses equally basic?


I may be wrong here, but I really think that "be in a state of knowledge" is a later-acquired sense of γιγνώσκειν, γνῶναι, which basically means "gain acquaintance with", like German kennen lernen. In earlier Greek I think there's a clear distinction between εῖδέναι, which is something like "have a complete mental image of" and γιγνώσκειν "acquire acquaintance with." It's like the distinction between French connaître and savoir, German kennen and wissen. There's probably one or more or several studies on the Greek words for knowledge; I think that a valid accounting would have take cognizance of linguistic era, genre, even dialect. I do think that earlier distinctions tend to grow fuzzier with the passage of much time.
Carl W. Conrad
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Re: Semantics of Γινώσκω

Postby MAubrey » November 12th, 2012, 2:15 am

Thanks, Carl.

That's the answer I was hoping for. It makes a lot more sense of how the perfect of this verb is used if the change-of-state sense is the original or more basic one.
Mike Aubrey
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Re: Semantics of Γινώσκω

Postby cwconrad » November 12th, 2012, 7:42 am

MAubrey wrote:Thanks, Carl.

That's the answer I was hoping for. It makes a lot more sense of how the perfect of this verb is used if the change-of-state sense is the original or more basic one.


One ought probably to check the TLG, but LSJ cites Pindar (5th century BCE) for ἔγνωκα as perfect; I don't think the perfect is found in Homer. On the other hand, when I first saw your question, Mike, I thought of the strange (so it seemed to me) phrasing in the proem of the Odyssey:
πολλῶν δ’ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω

The phrase, νόον ἔγνω, is hard to English -- something like, "came to discern their way of looking at things." What's remarkable here is the combination of ἴδεν and ἔγνω, especially inasmuch as ἴδεν is the aorist of the verb the perfect tense form of which, οἳδα, means "know" or "have a clear vision of" or the like in ancient Greek generally.

As a postscript, I might just mention the equally strange/unexpected phrasing in the proem of the Iliad:
Book 1.3 πολλὰς δ’ ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν
4 ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν ...

Here Achilles has dispatched the ψυχὰς of the heroic warriors to Hades, but has made "them" -- the warriors themselves -- food for dogs and carrion birds. ψυχή is a Greek word that undergoes quite a "sea change" in the course of Greek linguistic history after this, its first extant appearance in Greek literature.
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