The Tale of Peter Rabbit in Koine Greek

AbstractPresented here is an analysis of the effect of the Koine Greek preverb eis- on the lexical aspect of the Koine verb erchomai 'go/come'. To determine the effect of eis-, I demonstrate the lexical aspect of the simplex erchomai and its prefixed form eis-erchomai by annotating all instances of both verbs in the Greek New Testament. Methodology for determining the lexical aspect of the two verbs is adapted from methodology used for languages in which native speaker intuitions are accessible. Applying some of these tests to the corpora, I conclude that erchomai is an activity verb and eiserchomai is a telic verb. This result confirms Buist Fanning's (1990) classification of the same verbs, though he used different methodology to come to this conclusion. Additional ways of developing aktionsart tests for corpora are suggested.

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The Greek Perfect through Gothic Eyes: Evidence for the Existence of a Unitary Semantic for the Greek Perfect in New Testament Greek

Journal of Greek Linguistics ◽

10.1163/15699846-01401002 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 5-42 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Robert Crellin

Keyword(s):

Present Article ◽

New Testament ◽

Pure State ◽

Past Tense ◽

Change Of State ◽

Considerable Debate ◽

The New Testament ◽

The Subject ◽

Classical Language ◽

Koine Greek

The semantics of the later Koine Greek perfect have been the subject of considerable debate in recent years. For the immediately post-Classical language Haug (2004) has suggested that the perfect combines resultant state and XN semantics, unifiable under the framework of event realisation (Bohnemeyer & Swift 2004). The present article presents a modified unitary semantic in terms of participant property (Smith 1997), and assesses its validity with reference to the translation of the perfect indicative active into Gothic. It is found that, while non-state verbs are translated only with past-tense forms in Gothic, contrary to traditional and even many modern views of the Greek perfect, the perfect of both pure state and change-of-state verbs are compatible with both past and non-past tense readings. The fact that this is the case regardless of the diachronic pedigree of the perfect forms concerned is taken as evidence consistent with the existence of the proposed unitary semantic for the Greek perfect in the New Testament in the eyes of the Gothic translator.

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Biblical Gothic and the configurationality parameter

American Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Literatures ◽

10.1017/s1040820700001086 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 111-162 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephen A. Berard

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

Fundamental Function ◽

Consistent Variation ◽

General Methodology ◽

The Past ◽

Grammatical Relations ◽

Original Application ◽

Koine Greek

ABSTRACTThis article proposes a configurationality parameter based solely on the issue of criteriality for fulfillment of the fundamental function of syntax, which is the establishment of linkage between lexemes and their grammatical relations. The two alternative linking systems discussed here are structural and morphological (S-systems and M-systems). S-systems are found in all language, whereas M-systems are found only in certain languages, and there only in isolated pockets which co-occur with specificity gaps in the respective S-system. In the past, observations about the authenticity and idiomaticness of the language of the Gothic Bible have been based on the examination of very limited phenomena as well as on subjective impressions. A general methodology is suggested here for thorough comparison of the Gothic with the Greek original. Application of this methodology to four sample chapters reveals significant and consistent variation in certain areas, although very little variation is found in the area of word order. The latter fact, along with some other considerations, suggests that Gothic had an M-system somewhat comparable to that of Koine Greek.

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Extraction from complement clauses in Koine Greek

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session ◽

10.31356/silwp.vol31.02 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Stephen A. Marlett

Keyword(s):

Complement Clauses ◽

Koine Greek

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Paradigm of passive constructions in the Ukrainian translation of the Bible by Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko)

Ukrainska mova ◽

10.15407/ukrmova2021.02.048 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 48-64

Author(s):

Оlena Lavrinets ◽

Keyword(s):

Russian Translation ◽

The Bible ◽

Positive Tendency ◽

Verb Forms ◽

Peripheral Position ◽

Different Types ◽

Biblical Languages ◽

Holy Writ ◽

Koine Greek ◽

Passive Verbs

This paper investigates how passive constructions are used in Filaret’s translation of the Bible from Standard Russian (Russian Synod’s translation, 2002) into Ukrainian, not from biblical languages, e.g., Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. It specifically argues the nuclear position of the Ukrainian passive constructions paradigm formed by passive constructions with predicative participles in -nyi, -tyi, circumnuclear position of constructions with predicative forms in -no, -to, and peripheral position of constructions with passive verbs in -sia. Ranking of passive constructions with predicative participles over constructions with forms in -no, -to neutralizes syntactical peculiarities of Ukrainian, i.e., a focus on predicativity in finite verb forms and forms in -no, -to. The peripheral status of passive verbs in -sia shows a positive tendency for Filaret’s translation of the Holy Writ to distance from the Russian translation succeeded to passive constructions with predicative participles from Old Church Slavonic. The Ukrainian translation is often marked by active constructions (a mononuclear or two-member sentence) which are the authentical feature of the Ukrainian syntax. Simultaneous synonymous usage of active and passive constructions, particularly in the same environments, however, is largely triggered by a lack of distinction between syntactical peculiarities of Ukrainian and Russian, and, therefore, provides a syntactical variety. In the Ukrainian translation, usage of active constructions and different types of passive forms almost always intersects with the Russian Synod’s version. Keywords: Ukrainian translation of the Bible, paradigm of passive constructions, constructions with predicative forms in -no, -tо, constructions with predicative participles in -nyi, -tyj, sentences with passive verbs in -sia.

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