Enclitics. Personal Pronouns. Present Indicative of εἰμί.

§91

The conjunction δέ is postpositive—that is, it cannot stand first in its clause. Ordinarily it stands second.

Example: ὁ δοῦλος γινώσκει τὸν ἀπόστολον, 6 δὲ ἀπόστολος βλέπει τὸν κύριον, the servant knows the apostle and the apostle sees the Lord.

§92

An enclitic is a word that goes so closely with the preceding word as to have normally no accent of its own.

Enclitics are thus to be distinguished from proclitics, which go so closely with the following words as to have no accent of their own (see §64). Proclitics give rise to no special rules of accent; they simply have no accent and produce no changes in the accenting of preceding or following words. But the case is very different with enclitics, which give rise to the following rules:

I. Accenting of the word before an enclitic:

(1) The word before an enclitic does not change an acute on the last syllable to a grave.

Example: ἀδελφὸς μου is incorrect; ἀδελφός μου is correct.

(2) If the word before an enclitic has an acute on the antepenult, or a circumflex on the penult, it takes an additional accent (an acute) on the ultima.

Examples: ἄνθρωπός pov, δῶρόν σου, ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν, δῶρόν ἐστιν.

(3) If the word before an enclitic is itself a proclitic or an enclitic it has an acute on the ultima.

Examples: εἴς με, ἄνθρωπός μού ἐστιν.

II. Cases in which an enclitic has an accent of its own:

(1) An enclitic of two syllables retains its own accent when it follows a word that has an acute on the penult.

Example: ὥρα ἐστίν is correct because ἐστίν is an enclitic of two syllables. ὥρα μου, on the other hand, is correct because μου is an enclitic of only one syllable.

(2) An enclitic retains its accent when there is emphasis on the enclitic or when the enclitic begins a clause.

§93

It may help to fix these rules in the memory, if the enclitic in every case be regarded as forming one word with the word that precedes it and then the general rules of accent be applied. These enclitic rules may then be regarded as attempts to avoid violations of the general rules. Thus if ἄνθρωποσεστιν or ἄνθρωποσμου or ἄνθρωποσμε be regarded as one word the accenting of that word violates the general rule that the accent cannot get further back than the antepenult; and δῶρονμου violates the general rule that the circumflex cannot get further back than the penult. Something, therefore, needs to be done. And what is actually done is to put in an additional accent to break up the long series of unaccented syllables. Following out a similar principle, the accent of ὥραεστιν would become ὥράεστιν. But two acutes were not desired in immediate juxtaposition in a single word. Therefore in this case an alternative way out of the difficulty was adopted, and the enclitic was made to retain its own accent.

It should be observed, however, that this way of considering the matter will not quite work out in all cases; for ὥρα μου, for example, would violate the general rule that the accent cannot stand on the antepenult if the ultima is long.

§94

The declension of the personal pronoun of the first person is as follows:

The forms ἐμοῦ, ἐμοί, ἐμέ are the forms used when emphasis is desired. The unemphatic forms, μου, μοι, με, are enclitic.

§95

The declension of the personal pronoun of the second person is as follows:

The forms σοῦ, σοί, and σέ are enclitic except when they are emphatic. When they are emphatic, they have the accents given in the paradigm.

§96

The declension of the personal pronoun of the third person is as follows:

It will be observed that the declension of αὐτός is like that of ἀγαθός (omitting the vocative), except for the form avroin the nominative and accusative singular neuter.

§97

(1) A pronoun is a word that stands instead of a noun.

Example: The sentence, J see the disciple and teach him, means the same thing as I see the disciple and teach the disciple. The pronoun him stands instead of the second occurrence of the noun disciple.

(2) The noun for which a pronoun stands is called its antecedent.

Thus in the sentence, I see the disciple and teach him, the antecedent of him is disciple.

(3) A pronoun agrees with its antecedent in gender and number.

(Ὁ) μένω ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ καὶ γινώσκω αὐτόν, I remain in the house and know it. Here οἴκῳ is the antecedent οἵ αὐτόν, and since οἴκῳ is of masculine gender and singular number αὐτόν also is masculine singular. In English the neuter pronoun 1 is used, because the noun house, like all nouns denoting inanimate objects, is neuter in English. But in Greek the word for house is masculine, and therefore the masculine pronoun is used in referring to it. Hence the translations, he, she, etc., given in the paradigm above for the masculine and feminine of the Greek pronoun of the third person are correct only when the antecedents are nouns denoting persons. In other cases, the pronouns will be neuter in English even when they are masculine or feminine in Greek. It will be observed, further, that the pronoun does not agree with its antecedent in case, but only in gender and number. In the sentence just given the antecedent οἴκῳ is dative after the preposition ἐν, whereas αὐτόν has its own construction, being the object of the verb γινώσκω.

(d) βλέπω τοὺς μαθητὰς καὶ διδάσκω αὐτούς, I see the disciples and teach them.

(b) βλέπω τὰ τέκνα καὶ διδάσκω αὐτά, I see the children and teach them. It will be observed that in English in the plural the personal pronoun is the same in form for all three genders, whereas in Greek it varies.

(4) The personal pronouns are not used in the nominative case unless there is emphasis upon them.

(a) The reason for this rule is that the ending of the verb indicates sufficiently whether the subject is first, second, or third person. Thus λέγω means I say. The ἐγώ, therefore, is not put in unless there is emphasis upon it.

(b) Emphasis is usually caused by contrast. Thus in the sentence ἐγὼ λέγω, σὺ δὲ γράφεις, I say, but you write, ἐγώ and σύ are emphatic because they are contrasted with each other. And in the sentence ἐγὼ λέγω, “I say,” the natural inference is that some one else does not say. The insertion of the emphatic ἐγώ naturally suggests an implied (though here not an expressed) contrast.

(c) αὐτός is almost never used as a personal pronoun in the nominative case. The place of it, in the nominative, is taken usually by certain other words, and it itself has in the nominative case a use distinct from its use as a personal pronoun. These matters will be reserved for future study.

(5) To express possession the unemphatic forms of the personal pronouns should be used, and the English phrases my word and the like should be turned around into the form, the word of me, before they are translated into Greek.

Examples: My word, ὁ λόγος μου; thy word, ὁ λόγος σου; his word, ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ; her word, ὁ λόγος αὐτῆς; its word, ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ; their word, ὁ λόγος αὐτῶν.

If it is desired to emphasize the possessive idea—e. g., “my word’’—a possessive adjective, which will be learned later, is ordinarily used instead of the genitive of the personal pronoun.

(6) After prepositions, the emphatic forms of the personal pronouns are ordinarily used.

Examples: ἐξ ἐμοῦ, not ἔκ μου ; ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ, not ἀπό μου; δι᾽ ἐμοῦ, not διά μου ; ἐν ἐμοί, not ἔν μοι. But πρός με is common.

1The final vowel of prepositions is frequently elided before words that begin with a vowel. The elision is marked by an apostrophe.

A table appears here in the book.

§98

The present indicative of the verb εἰμί, I am, is as follows:

All these forms except εἶ are enclitic. The accents given in the paradigm occur only when required by the rules given above in §92.

ἐστί(ν) and εἰσί(ν) have the movable ν (see 844).

§99

The verb εἰμί takes a predicate nominative, not an accusative, to complete its meaning.

Examples: ὁ ἀπόστολος ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν, the apostle is a man ; ὁ ἀπόστολός ἐστιν ἀγαθός, the apostle is good.

In the sentence, the apostle says the word, it is asserted that the apostle does something to the word; the word is therefore the object of the action denoted by the verb, and stands in the accusative case. But in the sentence, the apostle is a man, it is not asserted that the apostle does anything to a man. A man, therefore, stands here not in the accusative case but in the predicate nominative.