Discourse function of Imperfective Tense (Mark: 1:4-8)

Moon-Ryul Jung moon at sogang.ac.kr
Sat Dec 28 09:07:11 EST 2002



When I read Mark chapter 1, I have noticed that after 
a sentence with aorist tense EGENETO in verse 4, 
a sequence of 6 sentences with imperfective tense follows.
It seems that these sentences with imperfect tense describe
situations that are customary or repeated. 
But does the verb form itself imply it?

For example we have in verse 7:

EKHRUSSEN LEGWN: ERCETAI .....

John's preaching would have been repreated day after day.
So, he would have said "ERCETAI.... " several times in
different occasions. Does the imperfect verb form EKHRUSSEN
imply this repetition?

Moon



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