Russell Soh, Greek 2, Prof. Lynn

Report on Greek participles:

The participles themselves: they speak not to moods, but only voice and tense, there are no subjunctive or optative participles, for it is no kind of conjecture that such a quality is attached to such a subject.

It is quality of a person, that corresponds to a verb, such as “he, a man who runs”, like a ‘side-verb’, or an opening act at a concert, such qualities are not the main attraction, or the major point of a given statement, but supplement additional context to a given statement.

Use of the participle in sentences:

Participles may be used in attributive and circumstantial position:

An example of the difference:

Attributive: “he, a man who (incidentally) runs fast, shall be killed by us”

Circumstantial: “because he runs fast, he shall be killed by us”

The attributive speaks to any almost incidental side quality of a subject in question and can be known by its placement in relation to the subject it speaks. If a participle matches with a subject in terms of its corresponding declension, and is:

a) sandwiched between the article and the subject: “tous [participle in accusative plural] adelphous” b) Linked to the subject via an additonal article: “tous adelphous tous [participle in accusative plural]

The circumstantial participle speaks to the circumstance of a subject doing or having done a thing, therefore causing the main statement to be spoken in the sequel, as such the circumstantial participle is somewhat akin to a conditional, why we can’t just use conditionals with set verbs is not a thing I am qualified to address. We may know a circumstantial by signal words that denote both its circumstantial nature, as well as the exact way they are to be translated. The signal word can be understood as framing the argument.

• The Temporal frame: signified by (“empeita”), “upon this circumstance of the subject so doing a thing, we had to do this”

• The Concessive frame: “Although….nevertheless….” pair, signified by (kaiper)…(homus) respectively

• The Causal frame:

1. Signified by (ate/oia): “because (and I assert this) he [circumstantial participle], we had to do that” 2. Signified by (oos): “because (and I don’t vouch for this) he [circumstantial participle], we had to do this”

All frames heretofore described is matched with “ou” to demonstrate its negation.

• The Conditional frame: no word for this, but may be derived from either the presence of “mn” in it negative aspect, or the tense and mood of the verb in the clause of the sequel:

Example of the latter kind:

1. If a conditional sentence is of two parts, a prior condition, and the ensuing result: protasis and apodosis, i.e. “protasis, apodosis”

2. Then a conditional participle is found in first part the protasis

3. Thus, the sentence would have one conditional participle in the protasis and one corresponding verb in the protasis.

4. By looking at the tense of mood of the verb in the protasis, we may derive what kind of conditional sentence it corresponds to, and so translate the sentence according to such frames.

*would this imply that the corresponding verb in the apodosis may only be limited to the tense and moods of the apodosis verbs found in the six main frames of conditional sentences?

**Sometimes circumstantial will not have any such tell-tales signs and must be inferred via context. Noticing a participle in a circumstantial position can be tricky without these signifiers.

Alternatively, such participles fall with the notions of “the genitive absolute”

The genitive absolute (to recognize one: look for a comma, that frames a statement with a whole series of genitives of all kinds in a kind of prelude to what is being said)

A genitive absolute can be known by having both the subject and the participle in a genitive case for apparently inexplicable reasons, reason that do not refer to the rest of the sentence.

Such circumstantial are translated mostly with “with”: as in, “with the departure of the guards from the city, we fled into the countryside”, “departure” would be a kind of genitive participle, and “guards” a genitive plural, third declension noun – both genitive declensions that refer to nothing else in the sentence but themselves, a kind of self-standing proclamation.

Supplementary participles: recalling internal and external accusatives, a supplementary participle is used to complement or qualify the main verb in question.

For example:

The statement “you enjoy running”, where “enjoy” is the main verb and “running” the supplementary participle that qualifies the exact nature of the enjoyment. Translated best as a gerund.

Certain verbs almost always necessitate a supplementary participle be paired with them in the sequel.

Direct translation of participles:

Present: “doing”, simultaneous with the main verb

Future: “about to do”/ “about to be doing”, subsequent to the main verb

Aorist: “this done (once and for all),”/ “after doing so (once and for all)”/ “doing thus (once and for all),”, prior to main verb (or just “having done”, in simple aspect)

Perfect: “having done”, completed action/ in completed aspect