Is there any way besides using an adjective’s context to determine whether it is predicate or attributive when the noun it modifies is not accompanied by the article? For example:
?πεὶ καὶ ἄλλος ἀνή? ?στι Πά?ιος ?νθάδε σοφὸς ὃν ?γὼ ?σθόμην ?πιδημοῦντα:
P.A. 20a
How does one know whether σοφὸς is attributive or predicate, whether Plato is saying “a wise man” or “a man who is wise”?
So how do you determine that Plato is not saying “he’s here as a wise man”? I understand this may not make sense in the context of the passage; I was just wondering whether through the syntax of the sentence the usage of an adjective could be determined without the article.
To override the natural interpretation, I suppose the participle ὤν might come in if you wanted to say something like that.
So the answer is no. I think here the all-important rule of reading/listening to anything comes in: Don’t leave your common sense at the door. Or, in linguist speak: Grice’s cooperative principle.
Is the reason that there is no coordination between “Parios” and “sophos” that one of the adjectives is subordinate to the other, or is it just an example of asyndeton?
I would vote for subordination since ἀνή? is somewhat empty and ἀνή? Πά?ιος seems basically equivalent to simply Πά?ιος, so “wise Parian.” It would seem odd to me to coordinate “wise” with “Parian.” On the other hand one translation I found online seems to take it the other way and translates it “Parian philosopher” which I guess is from seeing Πά?ιος as modifying ἀνὴ? σοφός.
so the only means of determining whether the absence of a connective between adjectives is asyndeton or subordination is context?
Context, or sometimes just the inherent meaning of the adjectives. But it’s a difference of emphasis right? And that usually is a matter of context.