Pronoun – Indefinite τις

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• How τὶ is used to describe inanimate arguments of verbs
• The phonology of an enclitic at the beginning of a clause
• The morphology, syntax, and semantics of the indefinite pronoun τις

VocabularyVocabulary

NoteVerb arguments with τὶ

While some verbs require an argument with certain semantic features, such as animacy or being a location, many verbs make no requirements on their arguments. Up to this point, these arguments have been represented by the definite article. This, however, would have sounded quite odd to Greek speakers, since the definite article itself requires a noun after it. It is also not the typical convention found in Greek dictionaries, which normally use the word τὶς ‘someone’ (the topic for this lesson). Because you learn τὶς in this lesson, we begin to replace the article with τὶς for verbs with arguments that do not necessarily have one of the argument features we have mentioned up to this point.

While the system we have presented is slightly more complex than a standard dictionary like BDAG, there is reason to be more fine-grained. An entry like παραδίδωμι in BDAG has two sub-senses under the gloss ‘hand-over.’ The first is represented as παραδίδωμι τινί τι and is glossed as ‘hand-over a thing.’ The second is represented as παραδίδωμι τινά τινι and is glossed as ‘hand-over a person.’ Thus, a dictionary like BDAG recognizes that the nature of the arguments may affect the sense of the verb. In its system, the neuter τι is used for inanimate arguments, and the masc/fem τινα is used for animate arguments. There are two reasons why this is not the best approach. First, it suggests that the distinction between τις and τι is animacy (equivalent to ‘who’ vs. ‘what’), but in reality, the distinction is between masc/fem nouns and neut nouns. Second, it is not clear whether τινί must be animate or inanimate, since the neuter and masc/fem forms are the same. Using the 2nd person pronouns for animate arguments disambiguates this. It should be noted that in our system, arguments marked with τις are also not necessarily inanimate or animate; they are just not necessarily animate (or one of the other categories we have introduced). To represent arguments that are strictly inanimate we use the neuter τι paradigm, as does BDAG. In all of this, we share with BDAG the concern that the nature of a verb’s arguments may affect the sense of the verb. Our system of representing arguments, however, is more fine-grained and allows you to clearly see what kind of argument the verb requires and how that affects the meaning (see Appendix B for further discussion).

PhonologyPhonology: Enclitic rule 7 (enclitic starts clause)

Enclitic rule 7 (see Phonology A) says that an enclitic starting a clause will always retain its accent. Carson’s example is from John 13:13 where Jesus says εἰμὶ γάρ ‘for I am.’ Because the enclitic εἰμί begins the clause, it is accented.

GrammarGrammar Topic: Pronoun – Indefinite τις

The indefinite pronoun in Greek is τις. As pronouns, these forms can take the place of a noun and refer to an entity. As an indefinite, it refers to an entity that is unfamiliar to the hearer, such as in a sentence A man came to my house. The use of a man signals to the hearer that the man is not someone that is known or familiar to the hearer in the discourse.

MorphologyMorphology: Pronoun – Indefinite τις

• τις is identical to the WH-words except for the accenting
• τις is an enclitic
• Its accent falls on the last syllable, and can be acute or grave (based on enclitic accenting rules)

SyntaxSyntax: Pronoun – Indefinite τις

There are two basic options for the syntax of the indefinite pronouns. It may act as a pronoun and replace a noun entirely, or it may modify a noun (coming after it):

SemanticsSemantics: Pronoun – Indefinite τις

The indefiniteness of the pronoun signals to the hearer that the entity being referred to is unknown or unfamiliar to the hearer. This definition is very similar to our definition of WH-words (see 11.4.3.3). The entity being referred to with a WH-word is unknown to the speaker. In either case, the τις words refer to an entity that is unknown in some way, either by the speaker (the WH-words) or by the hearer (the indefinite pronouns).