toward a definition of Verbal Apect
Jonathan Robie
jonathan.robie at datadirect-technologies.com
Mon Nov 4 14:06:27 EST 2002
At 06:44 PM 11/4/2002 +0000, Mark Wilson wrote:
>I think we might want to rethink the idea of "punctiliar." What comes
>to my mind when I think of "punctiliar" is something that takes place
>quickly and over a very short time. Within an Aorist verb, the actual
>events or actions depicted could be seen as transpiring over years.
>The actually number of events that an Aorist verb depicts can be
>millions. So what other word makes better sense in today's English?
I think that Smyth's explanation of the Aorist is the only 'punctiliar'
explanation that makes sense to me:
From Section 1923:
>The uses of the aorist may be explained by the figure of a point in time:
>
>1. The starting point (ingressive aorist, 1924); 2. The end point
>(resultative aorist, 1926); 3. The whole action (beginning to end)
>concentrated to a point (complexive aorist, 1927). [p. 430]
AT Robertson's discussion of the 'punctiliar' Aorist was much less clear,
though his examples are very good. I think that much of the stuff I read on
the "punctiliar Aorist" goes back to misunderstandings of what Robertson wrote.
Smyth's discussion of the ingressive aorist says that it is static verbs
that are involved:
>1924. Ingressive Aorist.--The aorist of verbs whose present denotes a
>state or a continued action, expresses the entrance into that state or the
>beginning of that action.
>a. This holds true of the other moods. Greek has no special form to denote
>entrance into a state in present time (1853).
>
>§1925. Most of the verbs in question are denominatives, and the forms are
>chiefly those of the first aorist:--
>
>archô rule êrxa became ruler
>basileuô am king, rule ebasileusa became king, ascended the throne
>blepô look at eblepsa cast a glance
>dakru_ô weep edakru_sa burst into tears
>douleuô am a slave edouleusa became a slave
>erô love êrasthên fell in love
>tharrô am courageous e tharrêsa plucked up courage
>nosô am ill enosêsa fell ill
>ploutô am rich eploutêsa became rich
>polemô make war epolemêsa began the war
>si_gô am silent esi_gêsa became silent
Reminds me of Vendlar classes.
If anyone explains the concept of punctiliar well, it is Smyth. And to me,
his explanation looks like a good place to start if you want to unify the
things said about Aktionsart in older grammars with the more modern
explanatory framework of aspect.
Jonathan
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