Paul Danove, «The Licensing Properties of New Testament Verbs of Non-Spoken Communication» filologia-neotestamentaria, Vol. 24 (2011) 41-58 page 43

Vol 24 (2011)

Paul Danove, «The Licensing Properties of New Testament Verbs of Non-Spoken Communication», Vol. 24 (2011) 41-58

This article resolves the semantic, syntactic, and lexical requirements for the grammatical use of the twenty-nine New Testament verbs that designate communication without a necessary reference to speaking. The discussion establishes criteria for distinguishing verbal usages, identifies four basic usages of non-spoken communication, and examines the conditions for the permissible omission of required complements. The presentation of the licensing properties of verbs with the four basic usages clarifies the similarities and dissimilarities in the realizations of complements for verbs of non-spoken and spoken communication and illustrates two further usages that are restricted to verbs of non-spoken communication. The concluding discussion considers patterns in the distribution of complements and usages among verbs of non-spoken communication.

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The Licensing Properties of New Testament Verbs of Non-Spoken Communication 43 first complement, their usages differ in the selection (Content or Topic) and sequencing (Experiencer second complement or Experiencer third complement) of their second and third required complements. These considerations identify four basic usages of communication: ACE, which appeared in the examples from 2 Cor 8,1 and Matt 4,8, and AEC, ATE, and AET, which receive illustration in the following sections of the study. 1.3. Permissible Required Complement Omission Greek grammar permits the omission of required complements of verbs of non-spoken communication in three contexts. Verbs may leave the second or third required complement unrealized when its definite semantic referent can be retrieved from the previous or immediately following context; and the accurate interpretation of a phrase containing such a definite null complement (DNC) requires the retrieval of its referent from the context:3 εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ ἔγραψα (2 Cor 2,9) For this reason also I wrote [the former letter, cf. 2,3] [to you Corinthians, cf. 2,4]. Verbs may appear with the required second and third complements unrealized even when the context does not clarify its exact referent. The indefinite null complement (INC) typically arises in general statements about the act of communication.4 Verbs impose on indefinite null comple- ments the interpretations, “some interpreter” or “people” for the Expe- riencer, “something”, “anything”, “someone”, or “anyone” for Content, and “about something”, “about anything”, “about someone” or “about anyone” for the Topic: …μὴ φανερωθῇ ἡ αἰσχύνη τῆς γυμνότητός σου (Rev 3,18) …that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed [to anyone]. 3 Definite null complements receive consideration in A. Mittwoch, “Idioms and Un- specified N[oun] P[hrase] Deletion,” Linguistic Inquiry 2 (1971) 255-59, P. Matthews, Syntax (Cambridge 1981) 125-26, and D.J. Allerton, Valency and the English Verb (New York 1982) 34, 68-70. 4 Indefinite null complements receive consideration in B. Fraser and J.R. Ross, “Idioms and Unspecified N[oun] P[hrase] Deletion,” Linguistic Inquiry 1 (1970) 264-65, and I. Sag and J. Hankamer, “Toward a Theory of Anaphoric Processing,” Linguistics and Philosophy 7 (1984) 325-45.