The aorist!!

Jon Robertson jmrober at pop6.ibm.net
Tue Nov 24 03:21:27 EST 1998


With regard to the seeming similarity between the aorist and perfect 
tenses, while there certainly is some overlap I think a major 
difference can and should be maintained.  It seems to me that the 
perfect is best seen as describing a "state" (much like Porter and 
surely others have stated), while the aorist gives the "simple" (or 
"snapshot") view of the action itself.  According to this view, then, 
the perfect would be much more interested in the state of the subject 
and less in the aktionsart.  The aorist would be an aspectual choice 
of the speaker/writer to refer to the action in the most general way 
available.

Okay, shoot me down now! : )

Jon Robertson





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