The syntax of

George Blaisdell maqhth at hotmail.com
Sun Feb 21 11:54:26 EST 1999




>From: "Moon-Ryul Jung" 

>"Kai ouk echousin ti phago^sin".
>"And they do not have what they might eat".
>
>My question is whether we should regard "ti phago^sin" as
>indirect question or "ti" + relative clause. If the statement
>were something like "they do not KNOW what they might eat".
>then the first option makes sense. But in this context,
>where the meaning is "they do not have anything to eat",
>the second option seems to make better sense. But from the
>viewpoint of syntax, I wonder whether "ti" + subjunctive clause
>can be considered a relative clause. 

While this question has certainly been well addressed by Carl and 
brought well to closure, there is one other syntatical perspective that 
might prove helpful.

TI forms the center between ECOUSIN and FAGWSIN, and may be considered 
to 'distribute' its force to both, in that it tells us 'what' they are 
not having, as well as 'what' they might/should be eating.  

Now because it is an indefinite term of the first order, it stands forth 
in the center of this construction as a still unanswered question:  What 
does the author mean by TI???  And I would imagine that this 
'distributed interrogative' is intended to be addressed in what follows 
in the text.  [Which I have not looked at!]

It would, on this approach, diagram as an hourglass: [omitting KAI]

OUK ECOUSIN
    TI
 FAGWSIN

This approach brings the focus into 'working outward from the center' 
syntactically, and then moves forward DIA that center into the next 
construction [thought/idea].  It has a chiastic resonance [A:B:A'] and 
would appear to work well here.

A translational try might be:  "...and they are not having what they 
might be eating...", which is probably too literal for most...

I hope this helps...

George





George Blaisdell
Roslyn, WA


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