Complements in Mark 8:36

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Chris Engelsma
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Complements in Mark 8:36

Post 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?
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Complements in Mark 8:36

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Have you considered the possibility that ἄνθρωπον is the subject of the infinitives κερδῆσαι and ζημιωθῆναι?
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Chris Engelsma
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Joined: July 7th, 2011, 12:23 pm
Location: Michigan
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Re: Complements in Mark 8:36

Post 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?
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Complements in Mark 8:36

Post 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
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
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