Adjective in Koine

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eklektos
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Adjective in Koine

Post by eklektos »

Please inform me if this is correct. If the adjective is preceded by the article it's attributive or substantive. If no noun follows it's substantive and functions as a noun. If the is no article preceding the adjective it's a predicate, and ἐιμί is often assumed. Is this correct?

daivid
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Re: Adjective in Koine

Post by daivid »

eklektos wrote:Please inform me if this is correct. If the adjective is preceded by the article it's attributive or substantive. If no noun follows it's substantive and functions as a noun. If the is no article preceding the adjective it's a predicate, and ἐιμί is often assumed. Is this correct?
That is indeed the rule. (Of course a adjective followed by its noun would be still be attributive if there was no article at all) . Do you have an example that doesn't seem to fit that?
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C. S. Bartholomew
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Re: Adjective in Koine

Post by C. S. Bartholomew »

eklektos wrote: If the is no article preceding the adjective it's a predicate, and ἐιμί is often assumed.
The statement often heard that ἐιμί is assumed is to view Ancient Greek from the perspective of a different language system. In Greek when ἐιμί is absent it is also unneccessairy.
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Re: Adjective in Koine

Post by daivid »

C. S. Bartholomew wrote:
eklektos wrote: If the is no article preceding the adjective it's a predicate, and ἐιμί is often assumed.
The statement often heard that ἐιμί is assumed is to view Ancient Greek from the perspective of a different language system. In Greek when ἐιμί is absent it is also unneccessairy.
What you say is true but it is very hard for beginners to get a handle on the concepts of attribute and predicate. The rule of thumb, that if you would in English use the verb "to be" an adjective is being used as a predicate, is therefore helpful.
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jaihare
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Re: Adjective in Koine

Post by jaihare »

eklektos wrote:Please inform me if this is correct. If the adjective is preceded by the article it's attributive or substantive. If no noun follows it's substantive and functions as a noun. If the is no article preceding the adjective it's a predicate, and ἐιμί is often assumed. Is this correct?
It's also attributive if the adjective follows the noun.

ἡ οἰκία ἡ μικρά = ἡ μικρὰ οἰκία "the small house"
ὁ δοῦλος ὁ ἀργός = ὁ ἀργὸς δοῦλος "the lazy servant"
ὁ δεσπότης ὁ χαλεπός = ὁ χαλεπὸς δεσπότης "the harsh master"

It doesn't matter if the adjective comes before or after the noun, so long as they are connected to articles. These are definite noun phrases with the adjective in the attributive position.

οἰκία μικρά = μικρὰ οἰκία "a small house"
ἀργὸς δοῦλος = δοῦλος ἀργός "a lazy servant"
χαλεπὸς δεσπότης = δεσπότης χαλεπός "a harsh master"

In addition, you can have a definite noun phrase like ἡ οἰκία ἡ μικρά without the first article (οἰκία ἡ μικρά = the small house).

(Is this JM?)

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