COMPOUND PARTICIPLES IN THE LUTHER BIBLE

Abstract

The article explores compound particles. Based on the study of grammatical phenomena, it presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis which reflects specific features of the grammatical phenomenon in question in Holy Scripture. The Greek primary sources which served as a basis for the Luther Bible were used in analyzing compound participles. The analysis of compound participles in the Luther Bible allows making a conclusion that, as the quantitative data suggest, compound participles are a rather productive form. The most productive model in this Scripture is the one with a noun as its first component; it makes up 63 percent of the total number of compound participles found in the text. The second largest group of compound participles found in the text is the one where the first component is a numeral. This groups accounts for 24 percent of the total number of compound participles in the analyzed text. The groups of compound participles having an adverb or pronoun as its first component are quite rare in terms of the number of participle units belonging to them: 6 percent and 5 percent respectively. The smallest group of compound participles in the Luther Bible includes compound participles with the first component expressed by an adjective (2 percent). The analysis made it possible to conclude that the Luther Bible was the first record of certain compound participles.