The present tense

Mark Wilson emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Tue Apr 30 16:12:49 EDT 2002



Clay:

You wrote:

-------
>Wallace {p. 562}
>
>"But the aorist, under certain circumstances, may be used of an action that
>in reality is iterative or customary."
>
>Yeah, but . . .
>
>Do you really think that the aorist form is what tells us that
>
>1PET. 1:24 : EXHRANQH hO CORTOS KAI TO ANQOS EXEPESEN
>
>happens iteratively? I don't think so. What sort of evidence can be brought
>to bear to hang this semantic weight on the aorist?
--------

I think you have misunderstood Wallace. See his footnote on this.
The interative aspect is not ascribed to the aorist tense itself.

And I sense from your response that there is a disagreement with
what I wrote, but I am not exactly sure where.

I do not want to speak for or defend Wallace (if that is who
you are questioning), but I will make the following observations:

1. An iterative aspect is not a SEMANTIC feature of tense;
it is a PRAGMATIC feature of any tense based on the interaction
of lexeme, tense, and context.

2. Depending on how you understand iterative, I would say that
1 Peter 1:24 is actually quite likely an iterative. That is,
the grass withers interatively/repeatedly/seasonally. Same
with perennial flowers.

Am I addressing your concern or objection? I've been known
to overlook the obvious  :o )

Mark Wilson


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