The present tense

Decker, Rodney rdecker at bbc.edu
Tue Apr 30 07:09:32 EDT 2002


> > How does one tell when the idea is "continuous action"
> > and when it is not? And when it is not, what kind of
> > action is it?
> 
> Part of your confusion may come from the imprecise 
> descriptions that appear in some grammars. ...
> What grammars describe as verbal aspect is a matter of 
> portrayal or point of view, not the nature of the action itself. 

Thanks, Trevor, for a good summary of aspect (it's still all too rare!). It
might be helpful to add that perhaps the best terminology for describing the
"nature of the action itself" is Aktionsart (as distinct from aspect;
earlier discussions of these two terms used them synonymously). Aktionsart
comes, not from the tense of the verb, but from lexis and context.
Aktionsart terminology is not standardized; Fanning has one good discussion
of it (*Verbal Aspect...*) and points to the other relevant literature, as
does Olsen's more recent work (*Semantic and Pragmatic Model...*). Older
terms such as inceptive, gnomic, iterative, etc. are probably best restated
in Aktionsart categories and related to the context rather than foisted on a
lone tense.

============================================
Rodney J. Decker, Th.D.
Associate Prof/NT, Baptist Bible Seminary
Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, USA
<http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/>
PURL: <http://purl.oclc.org/NT_Resources/>
============================================


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trevor & Julie Peterson [mailto:06peterson at cua.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 5:45 AM
> To: Biblical Greek
> Subject: [b-greek] RE: The present tense
> 
> 
> Waldo wrote:
> >
> > Sometimes I read that the present tense means
> > "continuous action." Other times "continuous action"
> > seems absent from the verbal idea.
> >
> > How does one tell when the idea is "continuous action"
> > and when it is not? And when it is not, what kind of
> > action is it?
> 
> Part of your confusion may come from the imprecise 
> descriptions that appear
> in some grammars. I find it helpful to illustrate the issue 
> with an English
> comparison. If I say, "He ran from Baltimore to Washington. 
> While he was
> running, . . . " I've made a distinction in how I choose to 
> portray the
> action, but the action being described is the same in both 
> constructions.
> What grammars describe as verbal aspect is a matter of 
> portrayal or point of
> view, not the nature of the action itself. Where the English 
> comparisons can
> break down is in the way that we use these corresponding 
> forms. It may be a
> simple strategy to teach students to distinguish between 
> different Greek
> aspects (for instance, distinguishing between the imperfect and aorist
> tenses, which are both past time but have different aspects) 
> by using the
> English participle for one and the simple past for the other. 
> But often the
> forms we choose in normal English are governed by more pragmatic
> considerations. Whether I say, "He runs," or "He is running," 
> has nothing to
> do with the kind of action involved. If I say, "He runs," I 
> mean something
> like, "He runs every day," or, "He runs when other people 
> walk." If I say,
> "He is running," I mean something like, "He is running right 
> now," or, "He
> is running this afternoon." Since Greek can use its one 
> present tense form
> to fulfill these various functions, the way we translate in 
> English is a
> question of English usage, not Greek. None of it has anything 
> to do with the
> nature of the action.
> 
> Trevor Peterson
> CUA/Semitics
> 
> 
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