1 THE SEMANTICS AND SYNTAX OF RELATIVE SENTENCES IN THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT Herman du Toit Paper presented at the 2014 Meeting of the Society for New Testament Studies (SNTS) in Szeged, Hungary 1. Broad parameters of relative constructions Relative constructions (hence RCs, sg. RC) are a pervasive phenomenon in the languages of the world, and commonly consist of an antecedent and a relative sentence (hence RS, pl. RSs). However, as will be illustrated shortly, RCs show a wide variety of syntactic forms across languages. For this reason, some researchers have argued that an adequate definition of RCs cannot be given in purely structural terms, but should rather be based on semantic or functional considerations. For instance, pƌoĐeediŶg fƌoŵ the assuŵptioŶ that a ‘C ĐoŶtaiŶiŶg a ƌestƌiĐtiǀe ‘“ is ŵoƌe ĐeŶtƌal to the ŶotioŶ of RC than oŶe ǁith a ŶoŶ-ƌestƌiĐtiǀe ‘“, Coŵƌie ;1989:143) defines a RS as necessarily consisting of a head (= antecedent) and a restricting clause. The head has in itself a potential range of referents, but the restricting clause restricts this set by giving a proposition that must be true of the actual referents of the RC. 1 Cf. the following example (Per Id p.142): (1) I ate [the potato [that Hasan gave to Sinan]]. 2 In this sentence, the head potato has a range of potential referents, which is limited to one potato ďLJ the ‘“, of ǁhiĐh the pƌopositioŶ HasaŶ gaǀe the potato to “iŶaŶ is tƌue. The syntactic forms in which RCs occur across languages could be classified along a number of parameters. Some of these are the following: 1.1 Word order in RCs With respect to the order of the antecedent and the RS, the two most widespread types are the postnominal type (where the RS follows its head), and the prenominal type (where the RS precedes its head) (Per Id p.145). These types seem also to be related to general characteristics of language in teƌŵs of GƌeeŶďeƌgs tLJpologLJ of ǁoƌd oƌdeƌ, viz. VSO (verb-subject-object), SVO (subject-object- verb) and SOV (subject-object-verb) (Greenberg 1966:77). In VO-languages like English, French, Hebrew, Persian and Welsh, the RS follows the antecedent, whereas in OV- languages like Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Telegu, Turkish, Amharic and Basque, the RS precedes the antecedent. In the English sentence in (1), for example, the RS is postnominal, following after the antecedent the potato. Cf., however, the equivalent of (1) in Turkish (Comrie 1989:142). (2) [[Hasan- n Sinan-a ver -diğ-i ] patates-i ] yedim Hasan of Sinan to give his potato ACCUSATIVE I-ate (= I ate the potato that Hasan gave to Sinan) 1 It should ďe Ŷoted that Coŵƌies defiŶitioŶ iŶĐludes Ŷot oŶlLJ ‘Cs ǁhiĐh ĐoŶtaiŶ fiŶite ‘“s, ďut also ŶoŶ -finite (participial) constructions like, for example, the string Passengers leaving on flight 738 in the sentence Passengers leaving on flight 738 should proceed to the departure lounge. It also includes restrictive atrributive adjectives like good in The good students all passed the examination (Per Id pp. 143-144). 2 For ease of reference, amongst others, the following conventions are followed in this paper in the case of numbered examples (such as (1): RSs are indicated by square (= [ ]) and RCs by italicized square (= [ ]) brackets. In numbered Greek examples, the element in the RC (normally a noun, but also a quantifier, demonstrative pronoun, etc.) which determines the number and gender of the relative pronoun that introduces the RS, is italicized. Italization is not used where other elements, for example, relative adverbs, introduce RSs.