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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] "Species" of the Genitive Waltke/O'Connor

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "C. Stirling Bartholomew" <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>
  • Cc: hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] "Species" of the Genitive Waltke/O'Connor
  • Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 11:38:20 +0100

On 27/08/2004 07:25, C. Stirling Bartholomew wrote:

Waltke/O'Connor seem a little embarrassed about proceeding to level of
semantic classification for the Genitive which they call "a traditional
classification of species" (Waltke/O'Connor BH Syntax 9.4.b p141). But they
go ahead and do it even though you get the feeling that they know better.

The move from syntax categories like adnominal genitives to semantic
categories like genitive of authorship (9.5.1.c) is precisely the kind of
move that has in the last decade produced several Greek grammars of dubious
merit.

D.Blakemore* at the end of her chapter on "Enrichment" raises the issue of
the semantic properties of the genitive in a way which suggests that what
Waltke/O'Connor call "a traditional classification of species" is in fact
something to be embarrassed about.


Genitive as a syntactic and especially morphological category is clearly defined, at least in Greek and many other languages. There doesn't seem to be a true morphological genitive in biblical Hebrew (although there may have been in earlier stages of the language), but the construct relationship is syntactically analogous to a genitive relationship between noun phrases, as are the English possessive constructions with 's and of.

The embarrassment comes when people try to treat the genitive as a semantic category. This simply doesn't work, especially cross-linguistically. There are many different semantic relationships which can be expressed by a syntactic genitive (or construct or possessive) relationship, but there is no consistency from language to language on exactly what can be expressed in this way.


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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