Discourse function of Imperfective Tense (Mark: 1:4-8)
Moon-Ryul Jung
moon at sogang.ac.kr
Sun Dec 29 07:16:09 EST 2002
> >
[Iver]
> > [Moon]
> > So, 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?
>
> Sort of, but not quite. I would say that the reference time for the
> discourse is set by the initial time expression: PRWI ENNUCA LIAN - Very
> early at night. The various aorist verbs then moves the story forward one
> event at a time. First he went out (from the house) and then he went away to
> a desolate place. Then comes the imperfect: And there he prayed.
>
Yes, exactly. When a setence has a time adverbial, that would define the
reference time. I talked about the cases where sentences with aorist verbs
do not have explicit temporal adverbials.
> As I said the imperfective aspect - which is shared by the imperfect and
> present tense in Greek - has a number of different related senses. It may be
> helpful to think of this aspect as an action that is described as unbounded
> or unfinished. Sort of like when you leave the person there praying while
> you go to a different scene to describe what happened in that other place.
> It appears that he also prayed for a long time. When Simon got up, he
> noticed that Jesus had gone from the house, so he started looking for him,
> while Jesus was still out there where the narrator left him praying.
>
> Does that help?
It really helps. Let me ask clarifying questions.
(1) If Jesus's praying were described by the aorist, then
would it imply that the prayer was completed before
Simon got up and tried to find him?
(2) Can you say " Simon started looking for him,
while Jesus was still out there where the narrator left him
praying",
with respect to the following English translation?
1:35 And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out
to a lonely place, and there he prayed. 1:36 And Simon and those who were
with him pursued him, 1:37 and they found him and said to him, "Every one
is searching for you."
In the Greek version, the implication is that when Simon found Jesus, he
was
still praying. How about the English version? Can we make such an
inference?
I know that it is not a question about Greek. But somehow it seems
important
to know the difference between Greek and English.
Moon
> Iver Larsen
>
> > 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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