[B-Greek] "gnomic" masculine

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Jun 26 21:10:40 EDT 2008


On Jun 26, 2008, at 7:24 PM, Carl Conrad wrote:

>
> On Jun 26, 2008, at 6:03 PM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:
>
>>
>> On Jun 26, 2008, at 1:20 PM, Carl Conrad wrote:
>>
>>> I don't find this at all problematic except for the term "gnomic" --
>>> do you perhaps mean "generic"?
>>
>>
>> Carl,
>>
>> OK, the term is used by Cooper, KLUTAIMHSTRA's statement is gnomic,
>> the masculine used in the statement is generic.
>> Cooper again, the persons referred to by this masculine are women,
>> exclusively, cannot be men.
>
> That I understand and have no problem with. Having done a Google
> search for "gnomic masculine" I've found a few references on the net,
> although several of those I found referred specifically to the passage
> you cite. It's just the terminology that I find questionable; it seems
> to me that what's involved here is a generalizing statement such as
> hOSTIS AN TOUTO POIHSHi ENOCOS ESTAI QANATOU, where the hOSTIS could
> very well refer to a woman. ENOCOS happens to be a common-termination
> adjective, but the masculine of a regular 3-termination adjective
> would be used in the same situation.
>
> I'm quibbling, of course, as I quibble at such Wallace-isms as
> "aporetic genitive."

A nameless sage has called my attention to a reason why this usage of  
the masculine adjective/participle might almost as well be termed a  
"sententious" masculine:
" τίκτω  (TIKTW)can be used for either parent. So the assertion  
that the referent must be "women, exclusively" is not quite right.  
It's not necessarily the child that one has borne, but one that one  
has produced/engendered."

I recall pondering this verb long ago as a freshman at Tulane,  
wondering if this verb, originally a reduplicated present TITKW from  
zero-grade root TK- before the metathesis of T and K, might even be  
onomatopoetic.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






More information about the B-Greek mailing list