Syntactic patterns of πᾶς as a quantifier in New Testament Greek

Cynthia L Miller-Naudé,Jacobus A Naudé

doi:10.4102/hts.v77i1.6922

Abstract

In linguistic terms, a quantifier is an item that appears with a noun to specify the number or amount of referents indicated by the noun. In English, various kinds of quantification are lexically differentiated—universal quantification (all), distributive quantification (each), and universal-distributive (every). In Greek, however, quantification is conveyed syntactically using primarily one lexical item, namely πᾶς. In this article, we examine the syntactic patterns of πᾶς as a quantifier from a linguistic point of view with attention to the determination of the noun (articular versus anarthrous), the number of the noun (singular versus plural) and the phrasal word order. We also examine the phenomenon of ‘floating’ quantification in which the quantifier moves to a new position in the noun phrase. Finally, we compare the patterns found in New Testament Greek with those of the quantifier כל in the Hebrew Bible in order to determine the extent and type of Semitic interference with respect to quantification in New Testament Greek grammar.Contribution: The syntactic patterns of πᾶς as a quantifier are identified and the semantic import of each pattern is described. The relationship of πᾶς to the quantifier כל in the Hebrew Bible shows evidence of Semitic interference in New Testament Greek grammar.

Highlights

In linguistic terms, a quantifier is an item that appears with a noun to specify the number or amount of referents indicated by the noun
We examine the syntactic patterns of πᾶς as a quantifier from a linguistic point of view with attention to the number of the noun, the determination of the noun and the phrasal word order
We compare the patterns found in New Testament Greek with those of the quantifier ‫ כל‬in the Hebrew Bible in order to examine the extent and type of Hebraic interference in New Testament Greek grammar

Summary

Introduction

A quantifier is an item that appears with a noun to specify the number or amount of referents indicated by the noun. These uses of the negative with πᾶς are a calque of the Hebrew negative with the quantifier ‫ כל‬and occur frequently in the Septuagint as a translation of the Hebrew and in the New Testament.13 Another argument advanced by Winer (1866:123, 131–137) for Hebraic influence involves nouns expressing definite objects. In considering the 10 constructions of πᾶς, we first confirm the observations of a variety of scholars that the most common and pragmatically unmarked word order involves the quantifier in initial position before the noun (or noun phrase) that it modifies, whether the noun phrase is articular or anarthrous The quantifier πᾶς in the four unmarked constructions has a different meaning or nuance depending upon the noun phrase that it modifies and whether the noun is singular or plural and whether the noun is articular or anarthrous. When the quantifier floats to a discontinuous position that precedes the verb phrase, its scope extends to the predication itself

Conclusion

Funding information