TonyN

Dear Julian,
I think you need to forget Greek and theology and go back to 3rd and 4th grade grammar. The adjective modifies the noun.

Here is a short grammar lesson for you. It is from Purdue.edu http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/536/01/

What is the Difference between Adjectives and Adverbs?
The Basic Rules: Adjectives

Adjectives modify nouns. To modify means to change in some way. For example:

* "I ate a meal." Meal is a noun. We don't know what kind of meal; all we know is that someone ate a meal.
* "I ate an enormous lunch." Lunch is a noun, and enormous is an adjective that modifies it. It tells us what kind of meal the person ate.

Adjectives usually one of few different questions: "What kind of?" or "Which?" or "How many?" For example:

* "The tall girl is riding a new bike." Tall tells us which girl we're talking about. New tells us what kind of bike we're talking about.
* "The tough professor gave us the final exam." Tough tells us what kind of professor we're talking about. Final tells us which exam we're talking about.
* "Fifteen students passed the midterm exam; twelve students passed the final exam." Fifteen and twelve both tell us how many students; midterm and final both tell us which exam.

So, generally speaking, adjectives answer the following questions:

* Which?
* What kind of?
* How many?

The Basic Rules: Adverbs

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. (You can recognize adverbs easily because many of them are formed by adding -ly to an adjective, though that is not always the case.) The most common question that adverbs answer is how.

Let's look at verbs first.

* "She sang beautifully." Beautifully is an adverb that modifies sang. It tells us how she sang.
* "The cellist played carelessly." Carelessly is an adverb that modifies played. It tells us how the cellist played.

Adverbs also modify adjectives and other adverbs.

* "That woman is extremely nice." Nice is an adjective that modifies the noun woman. Extremely is an adverb that modifies nice; it tells us how nice she is. How nice is she? She's extremely nice.
* "It was a terribly hot afternoon." Hot is an adjective that modifies the noun afternoon. Terribly is an adverb that modifies the adjective hot. How hot is it? Terribly hot.

So, generally speaking, adverbs answer the question how. (They can also answer the questions when, where, and why.)
Some other rules:

Most of the time, adjectives come before nouns. However, they come after the nouns they modify, most often when the verb is a form of the following:

* be
* feel
* taste
* smell
* sound
* look
* appear
* seem

Some examples:

* "The dog is black." Black is an adjective that modifies the noun dog, but it comes after the verb. (Remember that "is" is a form of the verb "be.")
* "Brian seems sad." Sad is an adjective that modifies the noun Brian.
* "The milk smells rotten." Rotten is an adjective that modifies the noun milk.
* "The speaker sounds hoarse." Hoarse is an adjective that modifies the noun speaker.

Be sure to understand the differences between the following two examples:

"The dog smells carefully." Here, carefully describes how the dog is smelling. We imagine him sniffing very cautiously.

But:

"The dog smells clean." Here, clean describes the dog itself. It's not that he's smelling clean things or something; it's that he's had a bath and does not stink.

jgibson000

.

No it doesn't. "Clean" qualifies "smells". "Clean" is here used adverbially. Strange that you don't recognize this.


But how on earth do you assume as you do that the rules of English grammar have anything to do with. let alone determine, the way Greek syntax and gramar works?

JG

The Evil One

I cannot beleive that Tony N is attempting to teach grammar to BCH regulars.

jgibson - the term is "subject complement". "clean" in this context is neither an adverbial nor a modifier.

TonyN

Dear J, it is not based upon assumption. Maybe if you took a couple of language courses you would know that the only way we can properly translate one language into another is to understand grammar rules. Break the rules and chaos ensues.

To make the noun modify the adjective is to break a cardinal rule of grammar.

Case in point:
Some linguists say that aiwnios (eonian) can mean "eternal" when used of God (Romans 16:26). But that is making the noun "God" modify the adjective "aiwnios." They come with a presupposition that since God is eternal that therefore it must modify this adjective aiwnios to mean eternal. But that is the reverse of the grammar rule.
The meaning of aiwnios is already set. It just has the duty of informing us of that which pertains to the eon(s). Nothing more, nothing less.

God is the eonian God (Romans 16:26). He is the God pertaining to the eons. He is over them, directing them. It is not telling us how long God lives.

jgibson000

Does "clean" not answer/speak to the question of how the dog smells? Does it not give information on the quality or type of smell that issues from the dog?

Jeffrey Gibson

The Evil One

"My dog's got no nose.

How does it smell?

Terrible".

The joke is funny because "how" is ambiguous between adverbial and subject complement in this context.

jgibson000

But we are not talking about the syntax of the joke, are we? So as funny (and shopworn) as the joke is, it is as irrelavnt as it is a red herring.

JG

John Kesler

"Smells," as it's used in the example, is a linking verb, which describes the dog (a clean-smelling dog), not the manner in which the dog smells. Confusion arises because some verbs, like "smell," "taste," "appear," etc., can be used as action verbs or linking verbs. Used as the latter, they link the subject with information about it. So yes, "clean" tells how the dog smells in the sense that it informs about the scent coming from the dog, but it does not tell how the dog smells with regard to the dog's smelling ability.

jgibson000

Did I ever say it did?

Jeffrey Gibson

Roger Pearse

Time flies like knives. Fruit flies like bananas.

When I was writing QuickLatin, I knew I was in trouble when I discovered that the second word anyone learns in Latin -- amas -- meant not only "you love" (Verb, 1st conjugation present active indicative 2nd person singular) but also "water buckets used by firemen" (Noun, 1st declension accusative plural).

All the best,

Roger Pearse