Apollonius' Corollary

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Apollonius' canon is named after Apollonius Dyscolus, a grammarian of the second century A.D. It is the rule that when one noun governs another noun (i.e., they occur "in regimen" ~ a noun qualified by a genitive noun) both either have or lack the article. It is termed a corollary because it is related to Apollonius' canon.

It is usually handled in the grammars under a discussion of the genitive since the construction includes a head noun and a genitive noun. This rule holds true more than eighty percent of the time. There are two basic modifications that will explain most exceptions:

(1) the head noun may be anarthrous (without an article) while the genitive qualifier is articular, especially if the head noun is the object of a preposition, a predicate nominative, or vocative;

(2) either may be anarthrous if it is a proper name (including κύριος) even though the other may be articular.

ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου = the son of man (Mt 9:6).

ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ = the kingdom of God (Mk 4:26).

τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ = the word of God (Acts 13:5).

When the genitive noun is a proper noun, the article may be absent when the proper noun precedes or follows the articular noun and also when it is bracketed between the article and the noun. Usually when a noun is modified by another noun in the genitive case, both nouns will have the article prefixed to them or neither will have the article. When both nouns are anarthrous, usually they are both mutually definite or both indefinite or both qualitative.

The corollary to this rule (Apollonius' Corollary), developed by David Hedges, is that when both nouns are anarthrous, both will usually have the same semantic force. That is, both will be, for example, definite (D-D), the most commonly shared semantic force. Somewhat less common is qualitative-qualitative (Q-Q). The least likely semantic force is indefinite-indefinite (I-I). Further, although not infrequently was there a one-step difference between the two substantives (e.g., D-Q), only rarely did the two nouns differ by two steps (either I-D or D-I). Hedges worked only in the Pauline letters, but his conclusions are similar to other work done in the rest of the NT."

Daniel Wallace concerning the Apollonius' Corollary on pages 250–52, in his book Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics:

h. A Genitive Construction (Apollonius’ Corollary): anarthrous head noun with anarthrous genitive noun: both usually have the same semantic force (usually definite or qualitative) (250–52)

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