Question about articular infinitve

[Joon Kim]

This isn't a question about Biblical Greek, rather about Classical Greek. But I don't know any other Greek forum that deals with Greek in terms of modern linguistics, not the traditional grammarian tradition. I hope this is okay.

I'm talking about this bolded section from Demosthenes, On the Crown 1:

πρῶτον μέν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τοῖς θεοῖς εὔχομαι πᾶσι καὶ πάσαις, ὅσην εὔνοιαν ἔχων ἐγὼ διατελῶ τῇ τε πόλει καὶ πᾶσιν ὑμῖν, τοσαύτην ὑπάρξαι μοι παρ' ὑμῶν εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα, ἔπειθ' ὅπερ ἐστὶ μάλισθ' ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν καὶ τῆς ὑμετέρας εὐσεβείας τε καὶ δόξης, τοῦτο παραστῆσαι τοὺς θεοὺς ὑμῖν, μὴ τὸν ἀντίδικον σύμβουλον ποιήσασθαι περὶ τοῦ πῶς ἀκούειν ὑμᾶς ἐμοῦ δεῖ (̔σχέτλιον γὰρ ἂν εἴη τοῦτό γἐ,) ἀλλὰ τοὺς νόμους καὶ τὸν ὅρκον...

The way I always understood articular infinitves was that it substantivised the verb: but here, there's also a question embedded within it. It's interesting and I've never seen anythign like it. Does anyone have more info on the syntax of articular infinitives? As a linguistics student, I'd be more than happy to read any papers you throw my way.

[cwconrad]

This isn't a question about Biblical Greek, rather about Classical Greek. But I don't know any other Greek forum that deals with Greek in terms of modern linguistics, not the traditional grammarian tradition. I hope this is okay.

I'm talking about this bolded section from Demosthenes, On the Crown 1:

πρῶτον μέν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, τοῖς θεοῖς εὔχομαι πᾶσι καὶ πάσαις, ὅσην εὔνοιαν ἔχων ἐγὼ διατελῶ τῇ τε πόλει καὶ πᾶσιν ὑμῖν, τοσαύτην ὑπάρξαι μοι παρ' ὑμῶν εἰς τουτονὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα, ἔπειθ' ὅπερ ἐστὶ μάλισθ' ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν καὶ τῆς ὑμετέρας εὐσεβείας τε καὶ δόξης, τοῦτο παραστῆσαι τοὺς θεοὺς ὑμῖν, μὴ τὸν ἀντίδικον σύμβουλον ποιήσασθαι περὶ τοῦ πῶς ἀκούειν ὑμᾶς ἐμοῦ δεῖ (̔σχέτλιον γὰρ ἂν εἴη τοῦτό γἐ,) ἀλλὰ τοὺς νόμους καὶ τὸν ὅρκον...

The way I always understood articular infinitves was that it substantivised the verb: but here, there's also a question embedded within it. It's interesting and I've never seen anythign like it. Does anyone have more info on the syntax of articular infinitives? As a linguistics student, I'd be more than happy to read any papers you throw my way.

This is not simply an articular infinitive; rather it is an entire clause that has been substantivized by the article. Here ἀκούειν is not directly indicated by τοῦ; rather ἀκούειν construes with δεῖ. The entire clause πῶς ἀκούειν ὑμᾶς ἐμοῦ δεῖ becomes a substantive indicated by τοῦ and the entire substantival clause is an object of the preposition περὶ, as is indicated by the genitive case form of the article. I'm sorry I can't give you the linguist's lingo accounting for this, but a pretty good traditional grammarians' account of it may be found at Smyth §1153 (http://artflx.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/phil ... monographs).