Lesson 9: First Declension- Masculine Nouns; Substantives

First Declension Masculine Nouns, α-stems and η-stems

• 1st dec masc nouns match endings of 1st dec fem nouns except in the sing of the nom, gen, and voc

what does the nom sing of an η-stem masc noun ending -της mean?

identifies the agent or the doer of an action

• ex: μαθητής = “one who learns,” i.e., “student”

or a person concerned with or involved in smth

• ex: οἰκέτης = “one involved in the household,” i.e., “family member”

nouns ending in -της = engl nouns ending in -er (learner, householder)

what do two-ending adj’s do?

they have no special set of endings to indicate the fem gender

only have two-endings as opposed to the three-ending adj

use masc endings to modify both mas and fem nouns

• ex: ὁ ἀνάξιος νεᾱνίᾱς and ἡ ἀνάξιος κόρη

what is alpha privative?

like the prefix un- in engl

rough = of “not”

implies absence or lack of a particular trait

many but not all two-ending adj’s are compounds of alpha priv. + a stem

what are substantives?

the noun modified by an adj may be omitted from the sentence; if a noun is omitted, the adj modifying it becomes what is called a substantive.

since GK adj always has an ending specifying gender, number, case, it has the ability, by itself, to convey ideas expressed by the nouns meaning “man/men/woman/women/thing/things”

• ex: ἀγαθός = “a good [man]”; ἀξίᾱ = “a worthy [woman],” κακά = “evil [things],” i.e.,“evils.”

what is a prepositional phrase?

similar to attributive and predicate position but a prep phrase is naturally adverbial and can also act as an adj or even a noun

refer to picture*

what is gen of possession?

noun identifying the possessor into the gen case

possessive gen may either follow or precede the noun that it modifies

• ex: two different ways to write “the master’s house”

  • (1) ἡ οἰκίᾱ τοῦ δεσπότου

  • (2) τοῦ δεσπότου ἡ οἰκίᾱ

also common to place the gen of possession in the attributive position (indicates the speaker regards the possessive gen as an attribute of the modified noun “the of-the-master house”

• ex: two other possible ways to write “the master’s house”

  • (1) ἡ τοῦ δεσπότου οἰκίᾱ

  • (2) ἡ οἰκίᾱ ἡ τοῦ δεσπότου

can you have many def articles in a row?

yes GK can have two or even three def articles in row as long as they are not identical

• ex: ἡ τοῦ is fine, but τοῦ τοῦ would not be