Pronoun – Demonstrative near singular

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• The morphology of the sg near-demonstrative pronouns, and their syntax and semantics

VocabularyVocabulary

Noteοὖν

The conjunction (abbreviated conj) οὖν ‘so, therefore’ is learned as a vocabulary item in this lesson, but it is also taught in more detail as a grammar topic in 31.4.3. Several common grammatical words (such as conjunctions and prepositions) are taught this way. Because they are so common, it is helpful to recognize them early in your language learning journey, but it is not necessary to master them right away.

GrammarGrammar Topic: Pronoun – Demonstrative near singular

Demonstrative pronouns are pronouns, like this or that, which are used to point to something. Many languages mark them for proximity to the speaker, that is, whether they are referring to something near or far, such as this (near) and that (far). They may also be marked for number, such as these (near pl) and those (far pl). Greek makes these same distinctions with the addition of case.

MorphologyMorphology: Pronoun – Demonstrative near singular

• The demonstrative pronoun forms are built off the definite article. The basic pattern is that you add either του or ταυ to the beginning of the definite article.
• Whether you add του or ταυ depends on the vowel you find in the article: If the vowel makes an ‘o’ sound, then you add του (e.g. τού-τῳ). If the vowel makes an ‘a’ or ‘e’ sound, you add ταυ (e.g. ταύ-τῃ).
• The only exceptions to this pattern are with the masc and fem nom forms. These forms are more like the 3rd person pronouns except for the beginning of the forms.
• αὐ-τός – 3ms pronoun; vs. οὗ-τος – ms near demonstrative pronoun
• αὐ-τή – 3fs pronoun; vs. αὕ-τη – fs near demonstrative pronoun
• Do not confuse the near demonstrative pronouns with the 3rd person pronouns. Two basic principles can help you remember the difference: 1) if the form starts with τ, then it must be the demonstrative (except in the masc and fem nom forms), and 2) if the accent is on the first syllable, it also must be the demonstrative.

SyntaxSyntax: Pronoun – Demonstrative near (Relation to article and order)

There are two important syntactic characteristics of the demonstrative. First, it is normally used with the definite article, so a phrase like ‘this person’ is οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος. Translating each of these morphemes into English would yield ‘this the person,’ which is ungrammatical English. Some languages, like Greek (and Hebrew), allow the demonstrative to co-occur with the definite article, and other languages, like English, do not. The proper translation would be ‘this person.’ The second characteristic is that the demonstrative can either come before the article or after the noun but not between the article and the noun, e.g. either οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος or ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος, but not *ὁ οὗτος ἄνθρωπος.

SemanticsSemantics: Pronoun – Demonstrative near (Referencing something in the world or discourse)

The basic function of the demonstrative pronoun is to point to things, whether things in the world or things in the preceding discourse (these two uses make it similar to ἐκεῖ ‘there’; see Semantics B for a more robust introduction to the demonstrative):

In Matt 26:26, Jesus does not say ‘this bread’ is my body, even though we know he is referring to the bread. This illustrates how the plain demonstrative can be used to point to some salient object in the world. In this case, it is the thing Jesus is holding in his hands. 1 John 5:4 is an example where the demonstrative refers to something mentioned previously in the discourse. This statement comes after saying that all who were born from God have victory over the world, so αὕτη refers back to the victory just mentioned.