[B-Greek] Romans 8:16: SUMMARTUREI TWi PNEUMATI

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Thu Jun 12 16:12:44 EDT 2008


On Jun 8, 2008, at 11:55 AM, Edgar Foster wrote:

> The text reads: AUTO TO PNEUMA SUMMARTUREI TWi
> PNEUMATI HhMWN hOTI ESMEN TEKNA QEOU.
>
> Daniel B. Wallace argues somewhat extensively that
> SUMMARTUREI TWi PNEUMATI is a dative of indirect
> object ("bear witness to") rather than a dative of
> association ("bear witness with").

Wallace, as I understand him, wants us to believe that the SUN in  
SUMMARTUREI is merely intensive and does not contribute to the  
semantics of the verb. I did some reading on SUN verb compounds w/ 
dative over the last few days in ATRobertson, G.Cooper and others.  
Cooper (Attic Prose Syntax 68.11.14) claims that any attempt to  
classify the various uses of SUN verb compounds w/dative will come to  
greif because the data is too complex to submit to a manageable set of  
categories.

Cooper and ATRobertson (p563) suggest that SUN and other preverbs  
(Cooper's term) may function as adverbs to either intensify or  
complete the meaning of the verb. I assume that when they use the term  
intensive they are saying that SUN does NOT change the meaning of the  
simple verb.

If my reading of the terminology is correct then SUMMARTUREW could be  
replaced with MARTUREW in Rom. 8:16 without a change in meaning. I  
find this difficult to accept.

Furthermore, I am a little suspect of this term "intensive" when  
applied to preposition verb compounds. It isn't clear to me that the  
term "intensive" as used in the traditional grammars always implies a  
complete lack of semantic distinction between the simple and compound  
form of the verb.

A more linguistic approach to this question might explore the notion  
of redundant encoding where the dative function is enhanced by the SUN  
verb prefix. Copper suggests as much using his own terminology. I am  
inclined to respond to "intensive" when used with verb compounds the  
same way I would respond to a claim that a constituent is fronted for  
"emphasis". The categories "intensive" and "emphasis" appear to be  
used as catchalls for things we cannot fit into our set of categories.  
Cooper at least admits that classification is a lost cause.


Elizabeth Kline







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