[B-Greek] Undefined Aspect

sheldon bryan shelterpro at msn.com
Wed Feb 11 13:00:44 EST 2004


As it relates to aspect in discourse, there might be some disagreement as to 
what is the tense that stands as undefined. Porter makes the case for the 
aorist being the undefined (more technically unmarked) tense in narrative 
functioning as background material with the present (imperfective aspect 
which includes the imperfect) being the marked aspect and functioning as 
foreground material. This aspectual realization might be mainly influenced 
by contextual factors (textual context of being embedded in a time-oriented, 
speaker/agent focus discourse) as Porter also hints that these tenses 
function differently in an expositional context. see (DA Carson and S Porter 
in Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics)

Sheldon Bryan

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