[B-Greek] Re: Pluperfect and Frontground

Kimmo Huovila kimmo.huovila at helsinki.fi
Mon Jan 26 12:29:53 EST 2004


On Saturday 24 January 2004 23:51, Con Campbell wrote:
> 
> Regarding the stative aspect of the pluperfect... I'm keen to know how it's
> stative aspect is pragmatically determined; what method is used? For me, I
> am sceptical of the existence of the stative aspect. I know this sounds
> radical, but it is in fact what Fanning implies in his critique of Porter,
> that stativity is an Aktionsart rather than an aspect (JSNTS 80, pp.49-50).
> A binary aspectual system (perfective/imperfective) is by far the most
> dominant in wider linguistic research, and while this does not prove the
> case, I think the burden to prove it is on those who argue for it in Greek.
> I am not convinced thus far, and do not think that the presence of three
> verbal stems is enough to assume it either. I talked personally to Ken McKay
> about the stative aspect (who of course was highly influential to Porter),
> and am still not convinced. I know there are others out there who agree -
> any b-greekers?? - and I am keen to keep talking it through.

I think Fanning did a good job in describing the perfect, but I am not in full 
agreement with his theoretical approach. I do not find it helpful to separate 
procedural character (Aktionsart) from aspect, since they are dealing with 
the same semantic differences and since these differences may be coded either 
lexically or grammatically. In other words, no strict distinction between the 
two seems plausible. Fanning (JSNTS 80, p. 50, footnote 1) mentions that he 
wants to see aspect consistently as viewpoint rather than procedural 
character. If this is so, how come aspect consistently changes the procedural 
character, as so amply demonstrated by his dissertation? Is it not better to 
see them as nested aspects? Also, if aspect is just a viewpoint, how come it 
regularly affects truth conditions? Not accepting his distinction between 
procedural character and aspect undermines Fanning's critique of Porter at 
this point.

Kimmo Huovila




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