[B-Greek] Imperative Mood

Polycarp66 at aol.com Polycarp66 at aol.com
Mon Apr 5 00:14:38 EDT 2004


In a message dated 4/4/2004 11:49:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
edmishoe at yahoo.com writes:
In that the Imperative Mood is not a part of the
Indicative system, grammarians almost universally
assert that "it is unrelated to time." However, can we
even conceive of an Imperative statement that is not
by definition FUTURE referring.? While grammarians,
for example, seem to wrestle with the aspectual
differences between the aorist and present
prohibitions (undefined or continuous aspect), few
seem to state that, because a command must appeal to
the will or volition of the recipient, it must
therefore be FUTURE. Can it be asserted that the
Imperative Mood commands an action to be taken or not
taken FUTURE from the time the command is issued? 
_________

I suppose that nothing illustrates the fact that the "tenses" in Greek are 
not what we consider to be temporal constructs any more than the imperative in 
Greek.  It is hazardous at best to attempt to equate the structures on two 
historically and culturally distinct language systems.  In this case, to attempt 
to equate an imperative with a time element is what is under consideration.  

If TIME were the consideration, then we would expect that there might be a 
present -- "Do it (now)."  There might also be a future -- "Do it (later)."  It 
is, however, inconceivable that there would be a past imperative -- "Do it 
(yesterday)."  

What we find in Greek is that there is a present imperative and an aorist 
imperative.  Surely these are referring to aktionsart and not to time.

gfsomsel



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