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Complements in Mark 8:36

Posted: August 3rd, 2011, 2:52 pm
by Chris Engelsma
Mark 8:36
τί γὰρ ὠφελεῖ ἄνθρωπον κερδῆσαι τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῆναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ;

My question here is more about the proper way to articulate the grammar of this sentence, particularly the complements of ὠφελεῖ.

Both ἄνθρωπον and κερδῆσαι τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῆναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ are complements of ὠφελεῖ. Can one say they are both "objects" of ὠφελεῖ?

I trust it is incorrect to say that there is a compound direct object here. There is no conjunction.

Another part of me wants to call κερδῆσαι and ζημιωθῆναι adverbial infinitives and not think of them as complements at all.

So....what is the correct terminology to adopt here in describing/teaching this?

Re: Complements in Mark 8:36

Posted: August 3rd, 2011, 2:59 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Have you considered the possibility that ἄνθρωπον is the subject of the infinitives κερδῆσαι and ζημιωθῆναι?

Re: Complements in Mark 8:36

Posted: August 3rd, 2011, 3:14 pm
by Chris Engelsma
Perfect. Sorry I missed that.

I have a follow-up question if I may. Is it accurate to speak of the "subject" of an infinitive? I always preferred the term "agent" of the infinitive to avoid confusing a verbal with a finite verb. ?

Then, I am also having difficulty diagramming a sentence like this. Any suggestions on where to put ανθρωπον on the diagram?

Re: Complements in Mark 8:36

Posted: August 3rd, 2011, 3:22 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Chris Engelsma wrote:I have a follow-up question if I may. Is it accurate to speak of the "subject" of an infinitive? I always preferred the term "agent" of the infinitive to avoid confusing a verbal with a finite verb. ?
I use "subject" to describe the syntactic role and "agent" to describe the semantic role. For example, I would not call the subject of the verb ζημιωθῆναι the agent.

Stephen