[B-Greek] What is the relation of "the Verb Stem" and "the Aorist Stem"?
Clwinbery at aol.com
Clwinbery at aol.com
Thu May 27 10:59:58 EDT 2004
In a message dated 5/26/2004 11:03:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time, fwgk5942 at mb.infoweb.ne.jp writes:
> On 2004.5.26, at 11:39 PM, David Lew wrote:
>
> > What is the relation of "the Verb Stem" and "the Aorist Stem"?
> >
> > In the "Learn New Testament Greek" by John H. Dobson, p. 108, he says,
> > " we study ... verbs in which one stem indicates continuing or
> > repearted action (present stem), but a different stem indicates single
> > or completed action, or action where there is no reference to
> > continuation or repetition (aorist stem).
> >
> > And in "New Testament Greek: An Introductory Grammar" by Eric G. Jay,
> > p. 16, he says,
> > " it is convenient ... in such cases to speak of verb stem and present
> > stem".
> >
> > My question is: Is the "Verb Stem" the "Aorist Stem"?
> > David Lew
>
> David, Greek verbs have a general verb stem, and six tense stems, i.e.
> a present stem, a future active stem, an aorist active stem, a perfect
> active stem, a perfect middle/passive stem and an aorist passive stem.
> Terminology may vary depending on the book/teacher, but the point to
> remember is that there's one "verb stem" and six "tense
> stems" each of
> which is supposedly formed from the verb stem.
>
> Regards,
>
> Raymond Regalado
The best source for a discussion of this is Funk, Vol III, pp. 56-57. The six classes of the verbs are determined by Funk according to how the present stem is formed. In class I verbs the present stem equals the verb stem. On the present stem the present and imperfect are formed. In class II verbs the present stem equals the verb base plus tau, etc. Knowing the rules of morphology is essential to understanding the forms of the verb and the morphological changes that enable the reader to identify the tense, voice, mood, person, number of the verb.
BALLW, a class III verb, equals the verb stem BAL plus a consonantal iota which produces BALLW for the present form. When such verbs takes a second aorist the verb stem equals the aorist stem. Augments are not part of the stem and thus drop off outside the indicative mood. Reduplication, on the other hand, is a permanent part of the stem and appear in all moods, and even in the infinite forms. The perfect stem of BALLW is BEBLHK(A), The QH stem is BLHQE/H.
Again, Funk's entire presentation on the verb is excellent.
Carlton Winbery
Louisiana College
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