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Q & A about a search for Absolute Genitives


Marco V. Fabbri

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Usually we think of syntax searches as something involving the Greek or Hebrew Construct Window. That is true for complex searches, or searches involving a clause o phrase.

 

However, many interesting things can be found also in the main Search Window.

 

If I type:

 

[ANY genitive]@[subject]

 

I will find any Genitive that is Subject. In Greek, this happens when the Predicate is a Genitive Participle.

 

In other words, the result of the search will be a genitive absolute.

 

Instead of entering [ANY genitive], I could have entered a part of speech, as [NOUN genitive] or [PRONOUN genitive]. This is good if I want to restrict my search to Prononuns or Nouns. But if I want to make it general, [ANY genitive] will fit better my purpose.

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I have suggested a way of searching for a Genitive Absolute. Sometimes we find two of them, connected with a coordinating conjunction (usually καί).

 

The second Genitive Absolute may be hard to find, as its Subject can be omitted: it is understood that it is the same as the Subject of the first Genitive Absolute.

 

As a consequence, we cannot search for a [subject] that is also [ANY genitive]: Accordance can

post-76-086075300 1320062589_thumb.png

Edited by Marco Fabbri
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If there are questions on Absolute Genitives, they may be posted as replies to the topic.

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  • 2 years later...

I get 305 hits doing this against the GNT28-T text. What text are you using and do you have the Greek syntax module ?

 

Thx

D

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Hi mkzumaeta,

this might be a silly question, but you have purchased and installed the GNT28 Syntax module haven't you? (or GNT Syntax if that's the text you use).

Edited by Ken Simpson
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  • 7 months later...

Hi LeoC1,

 

  This is really odd. I can get your results though I hit issues which I'll have to log separately. But I agree the results do not look correct.

 

  In your example Matt 2:19 does not look like it should be included.

  In addition the one reported in Marco's example above Matt 13:19 does not appear with the same highlighting.

 

  Examining these two together which is what I've been puzzling with over the course of the morning, I wonder a couple of things.

  The syntax query appears to only be finding a single adjunct in each predicate phrase. I tried a version of the query with just a single adjunct clause under it and that also fails to highlight 13:19 ἀκούοντος yet the syntax chart shows the structures as essentially identical. I've annotated a fragment of the relevant syntax chart for this case.

 

post-32023-0-50835400-1429387983_thumb.jpg

 

Apart from the additional adjunct for the negation the structures look the same. There is some nesting of Adjuncts under the Predicate proper but I am not sure whether, or why, that should be relevant.

 

  I suspect a bug here but someone from Accordance will need to check and offer an opinion.

 

Thx

D

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Thank you so much Daniel!

 

So, I was wondering, is there any other way (any other command) to look for the same grammatical construction in the NT?

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Good question. It turns out that it's a business creating searches for some of these seemingly very common structures. I have not tried this one myself in earnest. When I try to do these I start with a definition of the construction - usually Wallace is pretty good for getting these. He also provides lists of such constructions. I start developing something and then see if I get his examples in the hits. Of course his lists are not exhaustive so it only gives you an idea whether you are on track or not. In this case with a bit of mucking around I came up with this based on the three basic properties that Wallace cites for this construction, namely :

 

    a. Structure

    Structurally, the genitive absolute consists of the following:

    1) a noun or pronoun in the genitive case (though this is sometimes absent);

    2) a genitive anarthrous participle (always);

    3) the entire construction at the front of a sentence (usually).

Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: an Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 654-655.

 

post-32023-0-91673800-1429396374_thumb.jpg

 

Now of course this might be criticized in a number of ways but I usually start with something and there play with additional variants to handle word order and so on. And because the above is not a syntax search you can set the scope to Sentence which is helpful given 3 above.

 

Oh try the one below - I added pronouns which helps a bit I think.

 

post-32023-0-09012000-1429396811_thumb.jpg

 

Anyhow, have fun

 

thx

D

 

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