Verb: εἰμί

MorphologyVerb – εἰμί singular

• The εἰμί verb is an enclitic except for the 2s form (3s exceptions are discussed in 46.4.3).
• Notice the moveable ν at the end of the 3s form.
• The 1s form εἰμί does not have the typical ω ending you are familiar with, since it patterns with a different class of verbs.

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MorphologyVerb – εἰμί plural

• The endings for pl εἰμί are similar to the regular present tense verbs (e.g. 1p κράζομεν vs. ἐσμέν and 2p κράζετε vs. ἐστέ).
• The 3p form has an initial εἰ instead of ἐσ followed by the normal present tense ending without the initial ου of the regular ending (e.g. τύπτουσι(ν) vs. εἰσί(ν), both with moveable ν).

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MorphologyVerb – εἰμί

• εἰμί in the Luo act ptcp and subj forms consists of the typical endings of the form without a stem, e.g. σαλεύ-ω → ὦ, λύ-ων → ὤν
• The Luo subj forms have a circumflex accent because the theme vowel has lengthened
• The inf uses the ‘εἰ-’ stem of εἰμί with the ending -ναι, resulting in εἶναι

2 Technically, the root of εἰμί is εσ, but the σ has dropped out of many of the forms.

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SyntaxVerb – Copula εἰμί (word order of predicate)

The verb εἰμί ‘to be’ is called a copula. It connects a subject to another noun or adjective that identifies or describes the subject. Copulas are unique in that they do not themselves describe an eventuality the subject is engaged in, as most verbs do. To illustrate, Olivia danced means that Olivia engaged in the event of dancing at some time in the past, so the verb dance describes Olivia’s action. However, in the sentence Olivia was hungry, it is not describes. It only connects Olivia to the state hungry. This suggests that the property the subject has or the action he or she is engaging need not be the verb. The term predicate refers to the part of the sentence that describes who the subject is, a property he or she has, or what he or she is doing – regardless of whether that property is introduced by a verb, an adjective, or a noun. Copulas, then, are unique in that they are verbs that do not serve as the predicate of a sentence; they connect a subject to its predicate. In many languages, including Greek, copulas are also optional, since they seem to serve a trivial semantic function.

As for the word order of the subject and predicate in copula clauses, variation is normal, and the order at least partially depends on the nature of the predicate. If the predicate is definite, it is more likely to come after the verb than if the predicate is an adjective or a noun without the article (notice nouns being used as predicates occur in nominative case).

• (55) Subj-Verb-Pred (definite predicate normally follows copula)
• This is my beloved ὁ υἱός [son] (Matt 3:17)

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SyntaxVerb – εἰμί (Explicit vs. implicit copulas)

A language like English requires a copula for all nonverbal predicates, e.g. Tom is a/the cat/happy/in the backyard all require a copula. However, not all languages are like English. Some languages, like Greek, may drop the copula altogether:

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SemanticsVerb – Copula εἰμί (1 – Identifying predicate; 2 – Descriptive predicate)

Many different categories have been suggested for how to define the relationship between the subject and predicate in copular sentences, but we can at least distinguish between predicates that identify (with a definite as predicate) and those that describe (with an indefinite, bare singular, adjective, or PP as predicate). Identifying predicates are those like ‘This is my beloved son’ in Matt 3:17 where ‘my beloved son’ is referring to a known entity, namely God’s son, and he is being identified with ‘this person’. A descriptive predicate can be seen in the example in Matt 16:17 where Jesus says to Peter, ‘You are blessed.’ This describes Simon’s current state rather than identifying him as a certain known person.

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SemanticsVerb – Present Tense (3 – Present habit; 4 – Present State)

Some languages, like English, use a different form for states and events in the present tense, so we would normally say Rhoda loves soccer rather than * Rhoda is loving soccer, since the word love is a state (but the event Rhoda is playing soccer uses the be + - ing form). In Greek, there is no distinction in the verb form between actions that are in progress and states that hold in the present tense:

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PhonologyEnclitic rules 3–5

We have learned several proclitics and enclitics (e.g. ὁ and με), but we have not started learning the rules governing accenting them yet–other than that proclitics are accented with the following word (rule 1) and enclitics are accented with the previous word (rule 2). Enclitics are accented on occasion, and they often change the accenting of the previous word. The rules for accenting enclitics and proclitics are introduced as needed in the lessons, and they are summarized in Phonology A. The rules are primarily taken from DA Carson’s Greek Accents: A Student’s Manual where he has 9 rules for enclitics and proclitics. The three rules needed for this lesson are as follows:

• (52) Rule 3: A grave accent on the ultima of a word followed by an enclitic will change to an acute, e.g. ἡ ἀδελφὴ ἄγει τὸν ἵππον πρός με
• (53) Rule 4: A word accented with an acute or circumflex as far back as possible will receive an additional acute accent on the ultima when followed by an enclitic, e.g. ὁ ἄνθρωπός με τύπτει and ὁ δοῦλός με τύπτει
• (54) Rule 5: A word with an acute accent on the penultima will cause a following two syllable enclitic to be accented, e.g. ἡ νύμφη ἐστὶν ἀδελφή, but a following one syllable enclitic will not be accented, e.g. ἡ νύμφη με τύπτει

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