Last updated
Adjective · Grammar concept
Adjective: Compound adjectives
Compound adjectives is a adjective topic in Koine (biblical) Greek. This page gathers its forms, paradigms, and function, drawn from the lessons of Reading Greek Deeply.
MorphologyAdjective – Compound adjectives
- Compound adjectives are made up of two or more morphemes, e.g. εὔσπλαγχνος is composed of εὖ and σπλάγχνον.
- – masc and fem forms use 2nd declension masc endings, and neut forms use 2nd declension neut endings.
- The accenting is regressive.
| Masculine/feminine singular (neuter) | Masculine/feminine plural (neuter) | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | περίλυπ-ος (-ον) | περίλυπ-οι (-α) |
| Genitive | περιλύπ-ου | περιλύπ-ων |
| Dative | περιλύπ-ῳ | περιλύπ-οις |
| Accusative | περίλυπ-ον | περιλύπ-ους (-α) |
fromLesson 29.2
SemanticsAdjective (2 – Intersective and subsective readings)
In Semantics A, we introduced the distinction between intersective and subsective readings of adjectives. The intersective reading of Rachel is a beautiful dancer is that Rachel is both a beautiful person and she is a dancer, but nothing is said about the quality of her dancing, and the subsective reading is that Rachel’s dancing is beautiful, but nothing is said about how she looks as a person. The hallmark of this interpretation is that the adjective may either modify a particular property of a person or the person as a whole. Since this ambiguity is syntactic in nature, it is found in Greek as well:
- (270) Intersective and subsective ambiguity
- Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός (John 10:11)
- I am the good shepherd
fromLesson 29.2
Become a fluent reader of the biblical languages
This Greek wiki is like a bike manual - it explains the mechanics of Greek. The Biblingo app trains you to ride the bike. Spend 15 minutes a day in the app, and you will build reading fluency in Koine Greek. Start a free 10-day trial in minutes and start building reading fluency today.
New Testament text shown on hover: Greek from the SBLGNT, © 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, CC BY 4.0; English from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain).