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

Moon-Ryul Jung moon at sogang.ac.kr
Sat Dec 28 20:31:45 EST 2002


[Moon]
> > 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 repeated day after day.
> > So, he would have said "ERCETAI.... " several times in
> > different occasions. Does the imperfect verb form EKHRUSSEN
> > imply this repetition?
> >

[IVER]
> > Moon
> 
> Maybe it is too restrictive to say that the imperfect in itself implies
> repetition, but it does imply a descriptive mode rather than the main
> story-line where aorist is the default narrative tense. I would say that the
> imperfect implies an imperfective aspect which may in some contexts refer to
> repetition, in other contexts to a prolonged process or to a background
> description. I would be happy to accept that the imperfect in this context
> does imply repetition.
> 
> Iver Larsen

[Moon]
Perfect! iSo, would you suggest that the aorist tense moves the reference
time of the  discourse forward, while the imperfect describes some
relevant  situation with respect to the current reference time?

For another example, consider:

Mark 1:35:
  And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a
lonely place, and there he prayed.

Here "he prayed" is in the imperfect, while the other two verbs are in the
aorist. Would you say that the imperfect tense here describes a "prolonged
process" of Jesus' praying?  But still I do not get the point of using
the imperfect in this context. What would the point of the imperfect tense
in this context?

Moon]



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