Lesson 08. Second Declension Neuter Nouns Adjectives First/Second Declension Flashcards
Second-declension neuter nouns differ from second-declension masculines in which cases?
The nominative (singular and plural), the vocative (singular and plural), and the accusative plural.
καὶ σύ, τέκνον;
καὶ σύ, τέκνον; (Even you, child?)
Caesar’s dying words to Brutus, quoted by Suetonius in Julius Caesar 82.
Neuter nouns - peculiarities of case endings
For every neuter noun in Greek, the nominative, accusative, and vocative are identical in the singular, and in the plural as well.
While this complicates translation: if you see an ο-stem neuter ending in ον or α, you cannot immediately tell, on the basis of the form alone, how the word is being used.
You must look at the rest of the sentence to ascertain whether the noun is the subject, the direct object, or the addressee.
Paradigm for the neuter article
*Singular* Nom τό Gen τοῦ Dat τῷ Acc τό Voc --- *Plural* Nom τά Gen τῷν Dat τοῖς Acc τά Voc ---
Plural Neuter Subject with Singular Verb
When a neuter noun (of any declension) is used in the plural as the subject of a sentence, Greek does something that seems illogical: it puts the main verb of the sentence into the singular.
Thus the Greek version of the sentence “The children have horses” (τὰ τέκνα ἔχει ἵππους) literally means “The children has horses.”
Once in a while, to stress that the subject consists of more than one individual, a plural verb may be used, but most of the time a neuter plural subject is regarded as a single collective unit, requiring a singular verb.
When translating sentences into Greek, you should assume that a neuter plural subject and its verb do not agree in number.
Greek Adjectives
Adjectives modify (describe) a noun.
Adjective stems require endings to give them number, gender and case.
There are two types of greek adjectives. Those with endings from the First/Second declensions and those with endings from the third declension.
First/Second Declension Adjective Endings
sing mas fem ntr nom -ος -α/η -ον gen -ου -ας/ης -ου dat -ῳ -ᾳ/ῃ -ῳ acc -ον -αν/ην -ον voc -ε -α/η -ον plur nom -οι -αι -α gen -ων -ων -ων dat -οις -αις -οις acc -ους -ας -α voc -οι -αι -α
First/Second Declension Adjectives - Relevance of Stem-Type to Endings
Adjectives with stems ending in ε, ι, or ρ have ᾱ rather than η in the feminine singular, as you would expect on the model of first-declension nouns.
Accent for adjectives
Like nouns, adjectives have persistent accent: the preferred location for the accent is shown by the neuter nominative singular.
In first/second-declension adjectives an accented ultima in the genitive and dative always has a circumflex, as in first- and second-declension nouns. The ultima is accented, however, only if it is the preferred location for the accent (so in the feminine genitive plural, the accent does not always appear on the ultima, as it would in a first-declension noun).
How do Greek lexica display adjectives?
Greek lexica do not tell you explicitly that a word is an adjective; instead they simply list its three nominative singular forms in an abbreviated way: e.g., ἀγαθός, -ή, -όν.
Agreement of Adjective and Noun
A noun and its adjective must agree with each other. This does not mean that the two words must have the same ending. It means only that the adjective’s ending must indicate the gender, number, and case of the noun.
For example: In ἄξιος ἵππος the noun and adjective happen to have identical endings (since the ending that ἄξιος, -ᾱ, -ον uses to denote masculine nominative singular is the same as the nominative singular ending of ἵππος).
But in ἀγαθὴ ὁδός the two endings are not identical (since the ending that ἀγαθός, -ή, -όν uses to denote feminine nominative singular is not the same as the nominative singular ending of ὁδός).
An adjective’s ending is a clue to the gender of the noun that it modifies.
Attributive Adjective
In both English and Greek an adjective is classified as attributive if it identifies an attribute, or trait, that a noun already possesses (e.g., “the good child is sleeping”).
An attributive adjective and its noun together form a noun phrase, which can function as the subject or the object of the sentence or in any other way in which the noun by itself can.
Attributive Position
In Greek there are three possible positions for the attributive adjective:
- τὸ ἀγαθὸν τέκνον “the good child”. This is the most common and puts emphasis on the adjective.
- τὸ τέκνον τὸ ἀγαθόν “the good child” (literally, “the child—the good one”). It is not unusual to find an attributive attribute placed after then noun it modifies. This requires a second definite article—identical to the one in front of the noun—in front of the adjective. With this word order the speaker can give greater emphasis to the noun.
- τέκνον τὸ ἀγαθόν “the good child” (literally, “a child—the one that’s good”). Unusual. Speaker begins indefinitely then clarifies.
Predicate Adjective
A predicate adjective works with a linking verb to describe the subject (e.g., “the child is good”; here the linking verb “is” equates the subject with the predicate adjective).
In form it is an adjective that modifies a definite noun and does not come immediately after any of the definite articles that agree with that noun.
- τὸ τέκνον ἀγαθόν. “The child [is] good.”
- ἀγαθὸν τὸ τέκνον. “The child [is] good.”
A predicate adjective, in both English and Greek, differs from an attributive adjective in being part of the verbal idea (i.e., what is being predicated) in the sentence.
Definite Noun
A noun modified by one or more definite articles.
