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

PRONOMEN ABUNDANS AND PRONOMEN CONIUNCTUM 31
he, the man who did not fear redundant phrases, but was af raid of indistinctness
?
It may be concluded that Polybius forms a special case: he made an
extreme use of the pronomen abundans, an idiom which in Ancient Greek
texts was used only in a few special cases and which occurred only seldom
in the writings of authors of his own period and of later times. He must
have written them down, stimulated by his fondness of marking clearly
and distinctly the connections between his long, interminabIe sentences 88.
2.3.2.2. The three other instanees trom literary texts look very much alike,
as we have already observed in 2.2.3.4. In CaU., Epigr. 42,3 as weIl as
in Anth. Pal. VII 72 (both in 2.2.3.2) and Pausan. II 4,6 (2.2.3.4) the
relat. clause is split into two parts by means of flèv and bi. There seem
to be no special reasons why a pronomen abundans should be used. In
the example from Pausanias its presence may be caused by the bipartition
of the relat. clause: in this way the two names are more conspicuous.
In the two other instances the pronomen abundans points to the antecedent
and strongly marks the connection between it and the relat. clause.
It must be admitted, however, that one almost gets the impression that
these are not cases of a connection of two principal sentences, but rather
of arelat. clause made independent, and thus more conspicuous, by
means of a pronomen abundans.
2.3.2.3. In "Fachprosa" only two genuine examples have been found:
Ped. Dioscur. III 8,1 and I 1,1 (both in 2.2.3.3). The second one is obviously
a case of fear of indistinctness : the phrase &à T~V 7WtUtAtav
recapitulates once again the antecedent and indicates the point of
comparison with great exactness. As to the first example, no special
reasons can be found. It is one of those examples where the difference
with Ancient Greek cases becomes obvious and where one becomes aware
of a possible weakening of the relat. pronoun.
2.3.2.4. In the papyri seven instances have been found. The one, discussed
in 2.2.3.2 (P. Petr. II 13,19) is a clear example of fear of indistinctness
and may be compared with Pedo Dioscur. I 1,1, mentioned above. In
P. Oxy. I 95,16 (see 2.2.1) we find an example where the presence of the
pronomen abundans gives great emphasis to the antecedent and its qualities.
With regard to two other examples, P. Amh. II 77,25 ff. and B.G.U. I 330,
discussed in 2.2.1, we arrived at the conclusion that the presence of the
pronomen abundans might be caused by some sort of emotional stress
upon what is denoted by the relat. pronoun. Tabachovitz holds a different
view. Speaking of the example in P. Amh. II 77,25 ff. and comparing
it with Ancient Greek cases, he says 89: "Eine Konstruktion wie one(!
88 Cf. Palm, p. 113, where he characterizes Polybius' sentences as "Mastodontbildungen"
, this in contradistinction with the sentences of Diodorus.
89 Tabachovitz, LXX und N.T., p. 105.