More on Participles and Time

Ron Fay roncfay at hotmail.com
Mon Nov 18 22:55:42 EST 2002


Mark,

You said:
>There are only three aspects (stative, perfective, and imperfective).
>So, without a Future Participle, the Greeks had all the Aspects
>covered. The Perfect ptc is stative; the Aorist ptc is perfective,
>and the Present ptc is imperfective. Why the need for a Future
>Participle? (Besides, the aspect of any future tense verbal seems
>a bit elusive.)

There are three PRIMARY aspects, but the future actually gives the aspect of 
expectation (assuming something will in fact happen in the future).  One 
this is understood, then a more complete picture emrges.  In fact, there is 
much more nuancing to VAT (Verbal Aspect Theory) for Greek, but those are 
the three "main" categories.  There are several subcategories and even 
infinitives and participles carry aspectual tags.

- Ron Fay
________________________________________________
Ron Fay
Ph. D. student and New Testament Teaching Fellow
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Deerfield, IL.
roncfay at hotmail.com



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