Noun – Accusative singular

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• Verbs and their arguments
• An introduction to basic word order in Greek
• The morphology, syntax, and semantics of the accusative case sg

VocabularyVocabulary

NoteVerbs and their arguments

The word τύπτει is a verb like κράζει, and τήν is the feminine form of the article in accusative case, the case taught in this lesson. The reason why τύπτει is written as τύπτει τήν in the vocabulary list is that the verb requires a noun in accusative case. Some verbs require nouns to go with them to complete the thought of the verb. These are called arguments, which are words that complete the thought of another word. The verb τύπτει ‘hit’ requires another noun to go with it to specify who is being hit. The phrase Bill hit is an incomplete thought, but Bill hit the ball is a complete thought. The argument the ball completes the thought of the verb hit. Similarly, the verb τύπτει has an argument, and this argument is in accusative case (abbreviated acc), as indicated by the accusative article τήν. Since not all arguments will be in accusative case, the article indicates the kind of argument that goes with that particular verb. The gender of the object is feminine as an arbitrary convention. In real sentences, you could see any gender for the object as long as the case is accusative.

MorphologyMorphology: Noun – Accusative singular

• masc and fem acc endings are identical to the article form except for the initial τ in the article
• The neut nom and acc look the same
• The final ν often marks the sg acc

SyntaxSyntax: Basic Word Order

There is debate within studies on the syntax of NT Greek whether the basic word order is S(ubject)-V(erb)-O(bject) or V(erb)-S(ubject)-O(bject). The notion of “basic word order” is itself difficult to define, and people use it in different ways. Essentially, the basic word order is the order used when no special meaning is conveyed or context does not trigger a change in the order. For an extensive discussion of basic word order in NT Greek, particularly how the S and V are ordered, see Syntax A. In the Biblingo app, most sentences are written as SVO order, but some are written in VSO order (see 7.1.4.2). Grammarians do generally agree, however, that the default order is for accusative O(bjects) to come last in the sentence.

SemanticsSemantics: Noun – Accusative Case (1 – Direct object)

Noun – Accusative: all 3 parts on one page →Also in Lesson 20.1, Lesson 47.1

The accusative case normally marks the direct object of the sentence. The idea of “objecthood” is a difficult concept to define, but direct objects are normally affected by the action of the verb in some way. To illustrate, in ὁ ἄνθρωπος τύπτει τὴν ἀδελφήν ‘the person is hitting the sister,’ the person being ‘hit’ is in accusative case (the sister), and she is affected by the action of the verb, namely the hitting.