Attributive and Predicative Position
Table of contents
Substantive Modifiers
Greek uses many kinds of modifiers or descriptors to tell us more about substantives, and we’ve already learned three major methods of modification:
- using an adjective (“the noble citizen”, ὁ ἀγαθὸς πολίτης)
- using a prepositional phrase (“the people near the sea”, οἱ παρὰ τῇ θαλάττῃ ἄνθρωποι)
- using a genitive noun (to describe who possesses another noun) (“the child of the man”, ἡ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς παῖς)
To these three, we can add a rather unintuitive fourth: we can use adverbs to modify nouns. Adverbs normally modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. For example, note some examples using adverbs from the Week 7 Vocabulary above:
- ὁ παῖς τὰ ἔργα νῦν ποιεῖ. The child is doing the deeds now.
- ἡ γυνὴ τὸ βίβλιον τότε ἔγραψεν. The woman wrote the book at that time.
- τὸ βιβλίον οὐ μίκρον. The book is not small. (We’ll discuss “is” later on in this unit.)
In these examples, the bolded adverbs modify verbs like ποιεῖ and ἔγραψεν and adjectives like μίκρον. However, Greek adverbs can also serve as modifiers for substantives like nouns. Note the following:
- οἱ τότε ἄνθρωποι, “the people at that time”
- οἱ νῦν ἄνθρωποι, “the people now”, “the people today”
The clue as to whether an adverb is functioning regularly (i.e., modifying a verb, adjective, or other adverb) versus modifying a substantive lies in its position in relation to the noun and its article: that is, whether the adverb is in the attributive or predicative position.
Attributive and Predicative Position
When they modify nouns, all four methods (adjectives, prepositional phrases, genitive nouns, or adverbs) can exist in one of two positions in relationship to the noun and article: attributive or predicative position. Each position indicates a different relationship between the modifier and the noun: a modifier in the attributive position simply describes the noun, while a modifier in the predicative position can form an entire sentence without an explicit verb.
Attributive Position
There are three primary versions of attributive position:
- article - modifier - noun
- article - noun - article - modifier
- noun - article - modifier (this version is rare)
Thus, take a look at the following example that includes a modifier with the article and noun in the first two attributive position configurations, which are far more common than the third:
- ὁ ἀνὴρ λέγει τὸν πρῶτον λόγον.
- ὁ ἀνὴρ λέγει τὸν λόγον τὸν πρῶτον.
The noun phrase in each example is functionally the same. The modifier πρῶτον describes the noun λόγον, and the article τὸν links them together. In the two most common configurations of attributive position, the article and the noun are the bread that form a modifier sandwich, or the article is repeated with the modifier following the repeated article. This is where we must be able to tell what noun belongs with which article; remember that the article, like an adjective, must match its noun in gender, case, and number.
This idea becomes particularly important when modifiers consist of more than one word, e.g. prepositional phrases or genitive nouns. Note the following examples.
- ἡ οἰκία ἡ ἐπὶ τῇ ὁδῷ ὑπὸ τῶν ὑστάτων πολιτῶν ἐποιήθη. The house on the road was made by the last citizens.
Here, we have two examples of modification, both in the attributive position: ἡ οἰκία ἡ ἐπὶ τῇ ὁδῷ and τῶν ὑστάτων πολιτῶν. While the modifier in the latter phrase consists of one word (ὑστάτων), the modifier in the former phrase consists of three: ἐπὶ τῇ ὁδῷ. This is where we must use the context of the whole phrase or sentence to understand what belongs where and what modifies what. Note that ἡ οἰκία is immediately followed by a repetition of the article ἡ. This repetition leads us to expect some kind of modifier, which can be any of the four methods discussed above (adjective, prepositional phrase, genitive noun, or adverb). Since we immediately get the preposition ἐπί next, then we need to search for its object, which is τῇ ὁδῷ. Thus, the entire phrase belongs together: ἡ οἰκία ἡ ἐπὶ τῇ ὁδῷ.
- οἱ σώφρονες ἄγουσιν τὸν παῖδα τὸν τοῦ ἀνδρός. The wise people lead the child of the man.
In this example, note the accusative noun phrase and the juxtaposition of articles in the middle: τὸν παῖδα τὸν τοῦ ἀνδρός. As in the last example, the repeated article τὸν leads us to expect a modifier of some sort. Here, the modifier is a genitive phrase that indicates whose child it is (“the man’s”, τοῦ ἀνδρός). τοῦ ἀνδρός forms a single unit that gets attached in the attributive position to the noun that it describes, τὸν παῖδα.
Note that an adverb that exists outside of attributive position will most likely be functioning regularly, i.e. not modifying a substantive but rather modifying a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Take a look at the adverb examples in the Substantive Modifiers above.
Predicative Position
If a modifier is placed outside of the three configurations listed above, then it is in predicative position. While it can serve the same purpose as a modifier in the attributive position (i.e., simply describing a substantive), more often, it actually helps create a full sentence without an explicit conjugated verb. The predicate of a sentence is the section of the sentence that contains the verb and non-subject words associated with the verb (e.g., direct objects, predicate nominatives [on which see below], adverbs). So, it stands to reason that a modifier in the predicative position can create a predicate.
The verb that a modifier in the predicative position supplies is the linking verb “to be.” So, note the following example:
- δίκαιοι οἱ δικασταί. The jurors are just.
In this example, there is no explicit conjugated verb, but because the adjective δίκαιοι is in the predicative position, we can supply a form of the verb “to be” as the main verb. Compare this against οἱ δίκαιοι δικασταί (or any other attributive configuration): in this position, δίκαιοι simply modifies δικασταί as just part of a larger sentence (e.g., οἱ δίκαιοι δικασταὶ εἶπον, The just jurors spoke).
This idea of a modifier in the predicative position also constitutes the second use of the nominative case that we’ll learn about this semester: the predicate nominative. The predicate nominative is an adjective or noun in the nominative case that tells us more about the subject of a sentence while being placed in the predicate of a sentence, after a linking verb, whether an explicitly mentioned one or an implied one (as in predicative position). So, in the example above, note that δίκαιοι is a predicate nominative.
This also applies to nouns:
- δικασταὶ οἱ πολῖται. The citizens are jurors.
In this case, the predicate nominative δικασταὶ, “jurors”, tells us more about οἱ πολῖται, “the citizens”.
The Verb εἰμί
As mentioned above, the verb “to be” is not strictly needed to form a complete Greek sentence, since using the predicative position does the work of the linking verb for you. The verb can be made explicit, though, if you want to emphasize the importance of the verb “to be” or if you want to compare that state of being against another verb.
The verb “to be” in Greek is εἰμί, an irregular verb. This means that its forms change stems and endings in unpredictable ways, and thus their paradigms must be memorized.
Present Tense
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | εἰμί | ἐσμέν |
| 2nd Person | εἶ | ἐστέ |
| 3rd Person | ἐστί(ν) | εἰσί(ν) |
Note that all of these forms except the 2nd singular (εἶ) are enclitic. The 3rd singular (ἐστί(ν)) may be accented recessively if it’s emphatic or impersonal, on which see below.
Imperfect Tense
εἰμί does not have a third principal part. In order to put the action of being in the past, then, we need a different past tense than the aorist. The imperfect tense indicates an action that occurred in the past but over a period of time, and it is the only way that we can get a version of the verb that means “was” (3rd person singular) or “were” (3rd person plural).
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | ἦν or ἦ | ἦμεν |
| 2nd Person | ἦσθα | ἦτε or ἦστε |
| 3rd Person | ἦν | ἦσαν |
Uses of εἰμί
A form of εἰμί can make explicit what is implicit in a predicative phrase:
- δίκαιοι οἱ δικασταί. The jurors are just.
- δίκαιοί εἰσιν οἱ δικασταί. The jurors are just.
It can also help to disambiguate between tenses:
- δίκαιοι ἦσαν οἱ δικασταί. The jurors were just.
The use of an explicit form of εἰμί can also help clarify which element of a sentence is the nominative subject and which element is a predicate nominative. Note, for example, how the use of εἰσιν and ἦσαν in the previous examples separates the adjective δίκαιοι from the article-noun phrase οἱ δικασταί. With that separation, it’s easier to tell that οἱ δικασταί serves as the subject and δίκαιοι is not in attributive position.
The 3rd singular when accented recessively, ἔστι(ν), may also be used in two circumstances, often at the beginning of its sentence:
- to emphasize the verb: ἔστιν ἡ οἰκία μίκρα. The house is small!
- or to indicate possibility with an infinitive (which we’ll learn about in the next chapters): ἔστιν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἀκούειν. It is possible to hear the man.