[b-greek] GAR (previously 1JN 1:4)

From: boyd@huxcomm.net
Date: Mon Mar 18 2002 - 17:12:52 EST


Moon wrote:
<<As my previous post indicates, I have no problem with 4.8 even
though I think here that GAR connects the whole 4.8 to 4.7b. You
said this about GAR previously. If the GAR clause explains what
was stated in the previous sentence, we should say that the GAR
clause "deveops or explains the idea of the whole sentence". Quite
a long time ago, we talked about what the negative particle OU
negates. You said OU negates a particular constituent
of the sentence. I said that OU negates the "focused proposition",
the proposition that focuses a particular constituent. You eventually
agreed with me, because we were talking about the same thing.
How about GAR? Shouldn't GAR also develops or explains the
focused proposition of the previous sentence? For a proposition
always has the focus.>>

Moon, I confess that I couldn't give you a good definition for
"focused proposition," but it seems to me that GAR can be used to
develop or explain any part of the foregoing context, depending on
the writer's desire. Levinsohn says, "For example, GAR contrains
the reader to interpret the material it introduces as _strengthening_
an assertion or assumption that has been presented in or implied
by the immediate context."(1)

To limit GAR to developing only "the focused proposition of the
previous sentence" seems too restrictive of its usage.

You'll have to explain your understanding of "focused proposition.
For example, what is the "focused proposition" of the long
sentence comprising Philippians 1:3-8? In Phil. 1:8 (MARTUS
GAR MOU hO QEOS hWS EPIPOQW PANTAS hUMAS EN
SPLAGCNOIS CRISTOU IHSOU), the GAR introduces a further
explanation of the phrase DIA TO ECEIN ME EN THi KARDIAi
hUMAS from v. 7. Is that phrase the "focused proposition" of the
sentence?

Jonathan Boyd
Huxley, IA

(1) Stephen Levinsohn, _Discourse Features of New Testament
Greek, 2d ed. (Dallas: SIL International, 2000), 69.



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