Pronomen Abundans and Pronomen Coniunctum. A ... - DWC

PRONOMEN ABUNDANS AND PRONOMEN CONIUNCTUM 15
here, is made almost entirely independent and reminds one very much
of arelat. connection (in the form of a parenthesis) 13.
In the times of Homer the relat. pronoun still had its anaphoric force 14,
but since then this force has diminished. In the Greek of the 5th and
4th centuries B.C. the relat. pronoun has a more relative than anaphoric
force. This is also proved by the low number of relat. connection-constructions.
It is in this construction that the relat. pronoun has kept some
of its old anaphoric sense.
1.6. The function of the pronomen abundans
The Greek language had many ways of connecting principal sentences :
it could make use of a paratactical construction with 'Xat, of asyndeton,
it had at its disposal a whole series of connective particles. But a Greek
could also conneet his sentences by means of relat. connection. He did
not do so very of ten, but even less of ten did he use arelat. connection +
resumptive pronoun. What was he ab Ie to express by relat. connection ?
He pointed out that there was arelation between two sentences, while
he left it to the reader (hearer) to understand what kind of connection
was implied ('Xat, à)')'á, bÉ, yáe, ow, (J.ea: see the definition of Kühner-Gerth,
quoted in 1.5). If, however, he wanted to point out the object or person or
whatever it may be (the antecedent) in the preceding sentence more
clearly, then he must have feIt that the anaphoric force of the relat.
pronoun was not strong enough and reinforeed it by means of a pronomen
abundans. This reminds one of something Kühner-Gerth say in a different
(but not altogether different) context 15: "Hingegen haben die Personalpronomen
und die Demonstrativpronomen ovroç und avrdç sehr häufig au eh
zurückweisende Kraft, indem in demselben Satze nach einem vorausgegangenen
Substantive oder Substantivpronomen teils der Deutlichkeit
wegen, z.B. wenn zwischen dasselbe und das dazu gehörige Verb ein
längerer Zwischensatz getreten ist, teils des rhetorischen Nachdrucks
wegen ein solches Pronomen gesetzt wird, welches das vorausgegangene
Substantiv oder Substantivpronomen noch einmal aufnimmt und entweder
wieder ins Gedächtnis ruft oder Nachdrucksvoll der Aufmerksamkeit
vorhält". Exactly the same is done by the so-called pronomen
abundans, and for the same reasons: see l.1 and l.2. And we better caU
the resumptive pronoun the so-called pronomen abundans henceforward,
as it is clear now that it is not pleonastic at all, as it has a very definite
function in the sentence.
1.7. Pronomen abundans and the spoken language
Until now we have spoken only about its use in literary Greek. About
colloquial speech of, let us say, the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. in Athens
13 Cf. Kühner-Gerth 11, p. 434, Anm. 4.
14 See note 10.
15 Kühner-Gerth I, p. 660.