Time of Participles Relative to Finite Verb and Sentence Structure: S. Porter's Hypothesis

Cal Redmond kuyacal at netscape.net
Thu Aug 15 09:23:31 EDT 2002


Thank you, Carl.  Sometimes I neglect searching the archives because my 
internet access at times is very slow.  I will try not to neglect this 
resource next time.   As ever, you were gentle in pointing me in the 
right direction.

Cal Redmond, Ph. D.
Professor of New Testament
The International School of Theology-Asia
Manila, The Philippines

cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu wrote:

> At 7:30 PM +0800 8/15/02, Cal Redmond wrote:
> 
>>In his book Idioms, Stanley Porter discuss the time of participles
>>relative to the time of the main verb.  He gives the following
>>generalization on p. 188 of the first edition:
>>"If a participle occurs before the finite verb on which it depends (or
>>another verb which forms the governing or head term of the
>>construction), the participle tends to refer to antecedent (preceding)
>>action.  If a participle occurs after the finite (or other) verb on
>>which it depends, it tends to refer to concurrent (simultaneous) or
>>subsequent (following) action."
>>
>>I have not encountered this generalization before, nor am I aware of a
>>reaction to it.  Can any of you help me by either affirming or denying
>>this generalization?
>>
> 
> We did have a nice discussion of this at least once on B-Greek (a search
> for messages with "participles" in it found over 800~!); here's one of the
> more telling pieces from our archives of five years ago, with details for
> Marcan usage, from Rod Decker:
> 
> 
>>Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 15:03:27 -0500
>>To: b-greek at virginia.edu
>>From: Rod Decker <rdecker at bbc.edu>
>>Subject: Re: More on Participles . . .
>>
>>Carl, followed by Don, said,
>>
>>
>>>>In sum then, I think I'd say that an aorist participle preceding a main
>>>>verb in narrative very common indicates action prior to that of the main
>>>>verb--but not necessarily is this always the case--and that it is less
>>>>likely to be the case when you have a participle FOLLOWING the main verb.
>>>>
>>>Carl, I think you're right about the uses of the participles here, but I've
>>>done some research (more yet to be done) on this question and found that
>>>there are probably as many (or maybe more) examples of such "postpositive"
>>>aorist participles referring to prior action as otherwise. It seems that the
>>>position has more to do with emphasis or deemphasis (somewhat in the sense
>>>of an afterthought) than with the timing of events.
>>>
>>Here is a draft of some prelim. work on this question in Mark; I've
>>included both aor. and pres. adv. ptcps.:
>>
>>___________________
>>There are 541 participles in Mark (248 present, 253 aorist, and 40
>>perfect). The following section examines the temporal use of the participle
>>in three selected chapters: Mark 2, 6, and 15. In these three chapters, the
>>adverbial participle is evaluated for relative temporal reference in
>>relation to the main verb and in relation to the word order of participle
>>and verb. This provides a test corpus of  55 aorist and 22 present forms.
>>
>>Of the 55 adverbial aorist participles in the sample sections, 47 (85.5%)
>>express antecedent time and 8 (14.5%) refer to simultaneous time. No
>>instances of subsequent reference were observed. In both groups word order
>>alone was not an adequate criteria as both antecedent and simultaneous
>>reference was found with participles occurring both before and after the
>>main verb. There was a clear pattern in both instances, however. With
>>antecedent action the participle occured before the main verb in 45 of the
>>47 instances. Simultaneous action likewise favors the sequence: participle
>>
>>>verb (7 or the 8 instances). At least in the sample passages, aorist
>>>
>>verbs clearly tend to occur before the main verb.
>>
>>Aorist Participles in Mark 3, 6, 15
>>
>>Before the verb
>>  Antecedent
>>      2:1, 4, 5, 8, 12, 14, 16, 17
>>      6:2, 5, 12, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22a, b, 24, 25, 27b,
>>           29, 34, 35a, b, 36, 37b, 38, 41a, 46, 48, 53, 54
>>      15:1a, b, 8, 35, 36a, b, c, 37, 39, 43a, 44, 45, 46a, b
>>  Simultaneous
>>      6:26, 27a, 37a, 41; 15:2, 12, 43b
>>
>>After the verb
>>  Antecedent
>>      15:15, 17
>>  Simultaneous
>>      15:30
>>
>>
>>Present Participles
>>
>>Of the 22 adverbial present participles in the sample sections, only one
>>expresses antecedent time and 21 refer to simultaneous time. No instances
>>of subsequent reference were found in the sample section. Word order alone
>>was not an adequate criteria as simultaneous reference was found with
>>participles occurring both before and after the main verb. There was a
>>fairly clear pattern, however. With simultaneous action the participle
>>occured after the main verb in 16 of the 21 instances. At least in the
>>sample passages, present verbs clearly tend to occur after the main verb.
>>
>>Present Participles in Mark 3, 6, 15
>>
>>Before the verb
>>  Antecedent
>>      2:4
>>  Simultaneous
>>     6:2a, 11; 15:15, 19, 31
>>
>>After the verb
>>  Antecedent
>>     [none]
>>  Simultaneous
>>     2:3a, b, 12, 14, 23; 6:2b, 6, 25, 33, 48b; 15:4, 9, 24, 29a, c, 36
>>
>>___________________
>>Rod
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>Rodney J. Decker                        Baptist Bible Seminary
>>Asst. Prof./NT                                     P O Box 800
>>rdecker at bbc.edu                       Clarks Summit  PA  18411
>>http://www.bbc.edu/courses/BBS/RDecker/Index.htm           USA
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>
>>


-- 
ÐÏࡱá




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