Prepositions

[Geoff]

Greetings, <br /><br />This is my first post ;D I am a wee little beginner student of Greek (koine). I love the good resources available on textkit, and think the forums are some of the best on the web. <br /><br />I would like some help on greek prepositions. I read beginning grammars, and find the vocabulary difficult to solidify. I think this has to do with the ambiguity of English prepositions. Lexicons often enhance my confusion on this subject. Can anyone recomend a concise work on prepositions that can help out this ambiguity? <br /><br />Geoff

[klewlis]

I don't know if you'd call it "concise", but there is an excellent analysis of prepositions in the appendix of MJ Harris' "The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol 3" (Zondervan). The appendix is about 45 pages long :)<br /><br />Welcome to textkit!

[Geoff]

Thanks for the reference. I don't have that work, but I'll start browsing some friend's libraries. <br /><br />My problem isn't exactly memorizing the definitions given in the different vocabularies or translating my exercises, but it is more of a problem of usage. What is the difference in many of these prepositions when the english represents them as identical? <br /><br />e.g. - <br /><br />su/n (dative)= with <br />meta/ (Gen) = with<br /><br />Certainly they are not equals, but how can one tell the difference? <br /><br />The different words defined as "against" "from" and "on" are baffling. The alternative definitions of the respective prepositions are quite different which makes one wonder why such broad and overlapping definitions are given. <br />

[klewlis]

In addition to the essay I mentioned above, I think your purposes would be well-served by Eugene A. Nida and J. P. Louw's "Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on semantic domains"<br /><br />The book organizes sets of words based on general usage, and then describes each one so that you can compare the semantic differences between similar words. It's an extremely useful book for any NT student.<br /><br />:)

[Lex]

[quote author=Geoff link=board=2;threadid=713;start=0#7002 date=1064614143]<br />My problem isn't exactly memorizing the definitions given in the different vocabularies or translating my exercises, but it is more of a problem of usage. What is the difference in many of these prepositions when the english represents them as identical? <br /><br />e.g. - <br /><br />su/n (dative)= with <br />meta/ (Gen) = with<br /><br />Certainly they are not equals, but how can one tell the difference? <br />[/quote]<br /><br />My inclination would be to say, why can't they be equals? But I'm not completely sure that this is the case. Does anyone know if prepositions like the ones above can be alternated freely?

[annis]

[quote author=Lector link=board=2;threadid=713;start=0#7597 date=1065114984]My inclination would be to say, why can't they be equals? But I'm not completely sure that this is the case. Does anyone know if prepositions like the ones above can be alternated freely?[/quote]<br /><br />They cannot. Unfortunately.<br /><br />Prepositions are always annoying. Just as in English we say something is "on the table" but words are "in a book" (very annoying to a native French speaker learning English it turns out) or that something happened "on tuesday" but "in 1969," the subtle differences between Greek prepositions will have to be learned from context. The big L&S at Perseus is best for this.<br /><br />In the case of [size=150]σύν, while it is used a lot in compounds, by the classical period it is quite rare except in a few set phrases. It was increasingly replaced by [size=150]μετά over time. But then it got popular in Koine again. The L&S at Perseus even gives statistics showing the frequence difference change over authors of different periods.

[Geoff]

Yikes! <br /><br />That horrible phrase every Greek student fears "learn by observation". <br /><br />I appreciate the tips on the resources. I guess it will just take time in the lexicons and consistent reading to find the subtle shades. <br /><br />Thanks