Elision in Life
Posted: June 19th, 2019, 10:42 am
Hi ya
In this from Jospehus' Life :
Anyhow what question am I asking ? Not sure really. J seems to elide a fair amount and I suspect that's just how Greek is and if it's still intelligible that's fine. It has struck me more and more lately, as I read Life, that Greek elides and relies more heavily on retention of context by the reader than perhaps written English tends to. Or perhaps better put, that it does so without the explicit markers that English employs. And there are many more cases, and more difficult ones in Life than this. This happens to be a handy example.
Thoughts, comments ?
Thx
D
In this from Jospehus' Life :
in particular the bit in bold it seems to be a compressed syntax to express the thought that J received the letters from those carrying them, who handed them over willingly. What it says seems clear enough but how it came to be serialized in this manner interests me. I have yet to commence in earnest my study of composition (have been delayed alas by other things) but there is no relative pronoun in the δόντων ἑκουσίως τῶν κομιζόντων clause indicating the the letters as one would have in English. The is only an implied subject for λαβεῖν unless one accepts ἐγὼ, somewhat distant though it is, and the fact that it could be emphatically linked to ἔφην, though emphasis doesn't seem to be required here. So neglecting the usual case for an infinitive subject you could do that I suppose. Though I think I'd prefer to consider it an implied/elided accusative subject of the infinitive really.“ἔφην δ᾿ ἐγὼ πρὸς τὸ πλῆθος τὰ γράμματα λαβεῖν δόντων ἑκουσίως τῶν κομιζόντων· οὐ γὰρ ἐβουλόμην αὐτοὺς τὰ περὶ τὰς φρουρὰς τοὺς ἐναντίους εἰδέναι, μὴ δείσαντες τοῦ γράφειν ἀποστῶσιν.”
(Life 1:261 JOSEPH-T)
https://accordance.bible/link/read/JOSEPH-T#Life_261
Anyhow what question am I asking ? Not sure really. J seems to elide a fair amount and I suspect that's just how Greek is and if it's still intelligible that's fine. It has struck me more and more lately, as I read Life, that Greek elides and relies more heavily on retention of context by the reader than perhaps written English tends to. Or perhaps better put, that it does so without the explicit markers that English employs. And there are many more cases, and more difficult ones in Life than this. This happens to be a handy example.
Thoughts, comments ?
Thx
D