ISSN: 2306-5737E-ISSN: 2658-4069
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana
Transactions of the Institute for Linguistic Studies
ISSN: 2306-5737E-ISSN: 2658-4069
Acta Linguistica Petropolitana
Transactions of the Institute for Linguistic Studies 

Existential predicates in the New Testament

DOI:10.30842/alp23065737193285317
PDF, 566.94 kb
Kozhevnikova E. K. Ekzistentsialnyye predikaty v Novom Zavete. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. 285–317.

The paper describes the use of existential predicates in the New Testament on the basis of three books (The Gospel of Mark, The Gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Holy Apostles) in seven languages (Ancient Greek, Latin, Russian, English, German, French, and Udmurt). 87 contexts with existential predicates were selected. From these, I excluded examples in which an existential predicate was absent from at least two languages or was used to mark possessive or locative relations. The remaining contexts were divided into the following semantic groups: introduction (‘Intr’; 22 contexts), assertion of existence (‘Assert’; 37 affirmative contexts and eight negative contexts), generic existence (‘Gen’; three contexts), and inchoative (‘Inch’; 17 contexts). In all languages from the sample, apart from prototypical existential predicates or existential constructions (e.g., English there is), other predicates also can express the semantics of existence. I show that the use of each predicate or construction depends on the semantic type of a given context. For example, the existential construction with the predicate arose is expected in the ‘Inch’ group but is not found in other types of contexts.

The contexts of ‘Assert’ and ‘Intr’, though very close grammatically, differ from the semantic point of view. In the contexts of introduction, a new theme is always introduced, whereas in assertion contexts, existence is perceived as a permanent property. The negative contexts, making up less than 10 percent of the total number of contexts, describe the absence of existence. Existential predicates also can occur in cleft constructions, though this type of contexts is not relevant for the semantics of existence.

Based on the number of discrepancies found in the selected contexts and their semantic ambiguity, the paper divides them into core and peripheral contexts. The resulting database can be used for further cross-linguistic analyses of existential predicates.

Keywords
existential predication, corpus linguistics, parallel corpora, database, New Testament, Russian, English, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, French, Udmurt
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Keywords
existential predication, corpus linguistics, parallel corpora, database, New Testament, Russian, English, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, French, Udmurt
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