[B-Greek] OIDA
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Feb 10 11:35:46 EST 2004
At 4:11 PM +0000 2/10/04, <dhoxworth at charter.net> wrote:
>><Mitch>
>> This verb is said to be Perfect in form but Present in
>> meaning. Even though Perfect tense verbs indicate past
>> action in the Indicative, they seem to be translated
>> as indicating a Present state. So, don't most Perfect
>> verbs have a present meaning, not just OIDA?
>
><doug>
>most grammars define the perfect as a completed event (therefore past
>event by implication) with effects in the present. so the present meaning
>is that its effects are felt in the present though the event is thought to
>have happened (or is completed) in the past.
Just to supplement what Doug has said, it's sometimes said that we have
three aspects in Greek: imperfective/durative (present & imperfect
"tenses"); perfective (aorist); and stative (perfect & pluperfect). Each of
these may express present and past temporal reference: the aorist may
represent simple past but often needs to be translated as a pluperfect in
reference to the time of another element in a sentence or clause; the
(present) perfect essentially represents present state consequent upon
realization/fulfilment/completion of a verbal notion, the pluperfect the
past state. Two verbs in particular, which constitute the bulk of GNT
perfects and pluperfects conventionaloly translate into English much as do
present and imperfects; these are hESTHKA (I am standing) and OIDA (I
know); the corresponding pluperfects hEISTHKEIN (I was standing) and HiDEIN
(I knew).
One learns/is taught that the perfect tense has two senses: (a) indicates
completion (TEQNHKEN = "he has died") (b) indicates present resultant state
(TEQNHKEN = "he is dead"). In Hellenistic Greek sense (a) is far less
common because the aorist has come to serve that function (in contemporary
Latin the aorist and the present perfect have fused into a single tense),
and it is not uncommon that an aorist in Hellenistic Greek really OUGHT to
be Englished as a present perfect.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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