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

PRONOMEN ABUNDANS AND PRONOMEN CONIUNCTUM 17
offer us so many divergent aspects of the Greek used during the long
period between the 3d century B.C. and the 3d century A.D. that it is
almost impossible to des cri be it in the terms of one and the same language.
There is quite a difference between the literary Koine of a Polybius and
the almost colloquial Greek of some papyri. The language of the NT is
of ten regarded as being a whoie, but, upon closer examination of the texts,
it will be found that there exist considerable differences in the language
of the different books, chiefly differences of style depending on the education
of each individual writer. Further the differences in language between
one genre and the other have to be taken into account: the style and
language of historians like Polybius and Diodorus are not the same as
those of a professional man like Pedanius Dioscurides.
2.1.1. Characteristics
The Koine in general has some qualities which at first sight may have
contributed to an extension of the use of the pronomen abundans :
1. Koine-authors aim at exactness and clearness rather than at beauty
and artistic perfection.
2. The relat. pronouns start getting weaker.
3. The frequency of the construction of relat. connection is very high.
4. People are fond of a frequent use of personal and possessive pronouns.
5. And finally, if the pronomen abundans is an idiom that belongs
rather to COllOquial speech than to literary language, then this is the
period where one should expect to find examples, as more texts close to
common speech are available.
2.1.2. Frequency
If we leave out the examples in the LXX and the NT (for reasons to be
indicated later), there are 26 instances, more, indeed, than in Ancient
Greek, but less than one would have expected af ter seeing the points
mentioned in 2.1.1. It may be good, therefore, to look at these points a
little closer.
2.1.2.1. And indeed, clearness and exactness belong to the highest aspirations
of Koine-authors 19. Is it not for clearness' sake th at Polybius (I 41 ,2)
says bLO xal náÀw lneeewa{}'YJaav bLà -rav-ra 1
2.1.2.2. Weakening ot the relative pronoun. In an example like the
preceding one one gets the impression that bLÓ, originally arelat. pronoun,
is conceived as a mere connective, which needs clarification and reinforcement
20. In his study on the language of Polybius Kaelker mentions an
19 See, e.g., Costas, p. 39 and Palm, pp. 76 and 115.
20 Cf. Jallnaris, § 1439.