[B-Greek] present active of METANOIA

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Thu Feb 5 14:21:02 EST 2004


Dear John,

>ADDENDUM:  Has anyone determined whether or not the present active and the
>present progressive differ -- and if so, how?  Frankly, my experience to
>date has been with languages having considerably less grammatical
>complexity than Greek (German, Spanish, Chinese) and I have not heard of
>the active present until now.  That may reflect a lacuna in my experience,
>or something pertaining to Greek in particular -- I don't know which.

I feel that I am just saying the obvious, but as these terms are normally
used, the present active is a formal matter, the difference between active
and passive voice, which is fixed in forms for the present tense. The
progressive present is an interpretive category that can concern both
active and passive present verbs. Such a present dscribes action in
progress or ongoing, and it does not especially involve formal differences
from other interpretive categories for the present tense.

				Yours,
				Harold Holmyard





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