[B-Greek] I need help with an adverbial/participle clause
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Nov 29 19:54:21 EST 2006
On Nov 29, 2006, at 5:59 AM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:
>
> On Nov 28, 2006, at 8:57 PM, Christopher Shelton wrote:
>
>> *EMOI AITOUNTI hO FILOS MOU PANTA hA EICE HNEGKE.*
>>
>> After working on this with a friend we arrived at the translation:
>>
>> *(When) I asked, my friend brought all that he had.
>> *
>> My question is: how am I to decipher the adverbial/participial clause
>> EMOI AITOUNTI?
>
>
> Smyth #1498
> In expressons of time a particple is often used with the dative of
> the person interested in the action of the subject ...
>
> Xenophon Anabasis, Book 6, chapter 3, sect. 10, l. 2
> XENOFWNTI ... POREUOMENWi hOI hIPPEIS KATAQEONTES ENTUGCANOUSI
> PRESBUTAIS POREUOMENOIS POI
Just to flesh this out a little bit more for a beginner: You can
always start out by taking the elements as precisely as possible and
linking them syntactically in a "woodenly literal version" -- it
won't be eloquent, but once you understand how the pieces fit
together, you'll be able to rephrase it in a formulation conforming
to standard (English) usage:
"To me requesting my friend brought all (things) that he had." Pretty
clearly the EMOI, "to me" is complementary to HNEGKE "brought." So
then it becomes "When I put my request, my friend brought me all that
he had."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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