Re: Mounce: hO LOGOS HN QEOS

From: Jonathan Robie (jonathan@texcel.no)
Date: Fri Jan 02 1998 - 10:08:15 EST


At 09:05 AM 1/2/98, Stephen C. Carlson wrote:

>Indeed, determining whether such a noun is definite depends
>heavily on a close reading of the passage within its various contexts.
>Carl Conrad has recently suggested one factor to consider: rhetoric; Paul
>Dixon has offered his statistics; and I have submitted that the prior
>probability that QEOS is definite in John is relevant to any probabilistic
>analysis.
 
I couldn't quite read that last sentence - did you mean irrelevant rather
than relevant? I would tend to agree that a probabilistic analysis is not
really compelling here. If a definite meaning is possible, then it needs to
be considered. Regardless of the "most probable" interpretation of an
anarthrous precopulative predicate nominative, a particular word may have a
definite meaning in these constructions, or a particular author may use a
particular word with a definite meaning in such a construction, or a
particular author may use a particular word with a definite meaning in such
a construction in a particular context. The global probability is rather
irrelevant, as long as it is greater than 0. We read words in context, and
have to consider all contextual clues.

A simple example: the word "run" may be used as a verb applied to a woman's
stockings: "I snagged my stockings and they ran". The probability that the
word "run" has this particular meaning is very low - in fact, I can't
remember the last time I heard it used with that meaning, but I may be on
the wrong mailing lists ;-> However, the global probability that the word
has that particular meaning is not particularly relevant when we read the
word in a context that indicates that meaning, e.g. if we are reading a
fabric catalog that tells us that a particular material "will not run".

Sampling statistics is useful when we cannot build an adequate predictive
model, e.g. if we simply didn't know how to read Greek well enough to
comprehend the factors that contribute to the meaning of a sentence. Even
then, sampling statistics can only tell us the probability of a particular
meaning given a set of well-defined assumptions, and as soon as you add new
and relevant information to the set of assumptions, the probability
changes. For instance, the probability that an anarthrous precopulative
predicate nominative substantive is definite GIVEN that the nominative is
QEOS and is used in the gospel of John may be completely different from the
global probability for anarthrous precopulative predicate nominative
substantives.

And that's all the big words this little Greek can cope with for one
message ;->

Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________

Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com

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