Soph. Ajax 59-60
ἐγὼ δὲ φοιτῶντ᾿ ἄνδρα μανιάσιν νόσοις
ὤτρυνον, εἰσέβαλλον εἰς ἕρκη κακά.
Barry,
asyndeton wasn't and isn't a problem.
Smyth
2165. Two or more sentences (or words) independent in form and thought, but juxtaposed, i.e. coördinated without any connective, are asyndetic (from ἀσύνδετον not bound together), and such absence of connectives is called asyndeton.
Applying relevance theory (RT) to the papyrologist's claim that we have here
one sentence. I was assuming that he was presenting an exegetical proposition which he considered worth mentioning and worth the processing effort to read his sentence. If all we are talking about is asyndeton (a missing conjunction) then there is nothing much to talk about. On the other hand asyndeton had already been floated in that thread so I applied RT to his post and went looking for some added meaning which might not be there. I realize that all this assumes access to the context of his remark which I didn't supply.
Setting aside the
missing conjunction, the citation from Ajax has no object of the verb in the
second sentence which it inherits from the first sentence. I wondering if this feature of our sample text might suggest what Smyth calls an
expanded simple sentence.
923. Expansion of the Subject.—The subject may be expanded: A. By amplification: Ξενία_ς καὶ Πα_σίων ἀπέπλευσαν Xenias and Pasion sailed away. B. By qualification: 1. By an attributive adjective, ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἀνήρ the good man, an attributive substantive denoting occupation, condition , or age, ἀνὴρ στρατηγός a captain (986), an adjective pronoun or numeral: ἡμέτερος φίλος a friend of ours, δύο παῖδες two children. 2. By the genitive of a noun or substantive pronoun (adnominal or attributive genitive): στέφανος χρυ_σοῦ a crown of gold, ὁ πατὴρ ἡμῶν our father. 3. By a prepositional phrase: ὁδὸς κατὰ τοῦ γηλόφου a way down the hill. 4. By an adverb: οἱ νῦν ἄνθρωποι the men of the present day. 5. By an appositive (916). A substantive in any case may be qualified like the subject.
924. Expansion of the Predicate.—The predicate may be expanded: A. By amplification: οἱ λοχα_γοὶ ἀπῆλθον καὶ ἐποίουν οὕτω the captains departed and did so. B. By qualification: 1. By the oblique case of a noun, a substantive pronoun, or a numeral. This is called the object (919, 920). Thus: ὁρῶ τὸν ἄνδρα I see the man, φωνῆς ἀκούω I hear a voice, εἵπετο τῷ ἡγεμόνι he followed the guide, ἀγαπᾷ ἡμᾶς he loves us, ἐνί_κησε τὴν μάχην he won the battle (cognate accusative, 1567), ἔδωκα δέκα I gave ten. The oblique case may be followed by an adnominal genitive or a dative: ὁρῶ πολλοὺς τῶν πολι_τῶν I see many of the citizens. 2. By a preposition with its appropriate case: ἦλθον ἐπὶ τὰ_ς σκηνά_ς they went to their tents. 3. By an infinitive: ἐθέλει ἀπελθεῖν he wishes to depart. 4. By a participle: ἄρξομαι λέγων I will begin my speech. 5. By an adverb or adverbial expression: εὖ ἴστω let him know well, τῆς νυκτὸς ἦλθε he came during the night, ἀπῆλθε τριταῖος he departed on the third day (1042). On complements to the predicate, see 909.
I have reservations about applying
expanded simple sentence to our sample text from Ajax. What we have are two related but
distinct propositions which share the same subject and object. The object is supplied by inference in the second.
C. Stirling Bartholomew