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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