EAN + verb in present or aorist
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri Nov 1 01:22:44 EST 2002
> Iver,
>
> I don't understand how time can be isolated in EAN+verb clauses
> (protasis) since those clauses are normally temporally dependent upon
> their apodosis.
> If the apodosis is present than the entire condition is normally
> present (including the present or aorist subjunctive). If the apodosis
> is future than the entire condition is normally future (including the
> present or aorist subjunctive).
>
> John Schwandt
The difference in approach is that you start with assumptions given in Greek
textbooks, while I am trying to look at the data from scratch using
descriptive linguistics. Personally, I think some of the textbook
assumptions are dubious.
How do you know that a protasis clause is temporally dependent on the
apodosis, rather than the other way round? It is more logical to say that
the result depends on the condition, than the condition on the result.
What is meant by saying that when the apodosis is present the entire
condition is normally present whether the verb is in present or aorist? How
would one then describe the difference between using a present or aorist
form? Is it arbitrary?
When we have a condition and a result dependent on that condition, then the
result follows the condition logically and usually also temporally. If a
result is triggered by a certain event, that event logically must happen
first. This does put some restrictions on the verb forms that can be used.
When looking at a few examples it appears that when a present tense is used
in the conditional clause it can be followed by a present or future or a
verbless main clause, quite often a future. A linguistic description ought
to explain why one or the other is used.
When the conditional clause uses an aorist verb form, the main clause may
have an aorist, present, future or perfect. (This is not a comprehensive
statement, since I have not looked at all EAN clauses.) A linguistic
description ought to explain why different forms are used in the main
clause, and also why the conditional clause at times has a present verb
form, at other times an aorist verb form.
I am not saying I have answered all those questions.
If I were to do more thorough research I would want to split off those forms
where EAN is used instead of AN in connection with a relative pronoun. I did
not do that initially.
Even in English it is quite a job to describe the difference between "If I
were to do...", "If I am to do..." "If I shall do..." and "If I do..." Once
I have chosen which conditional form to use, the choice for the verb in the
main clause is limited.
Iver Larsen
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