[B-Greek] Present & Aorist of general & abstract verbs
Richard Lindeman
oblchurch at msn.com
Mon Dec 12 20:59:02 EST 2005
Dr Buth:
Thanks for your response. This is very helpful. The context of my questions
came from recently reading "Intermediate NT Greek - A Linguistic Approach"
by Dr. Richard Young.
I have in the past read a fairly wide variety of other grammars: Nigel
Turner, Smyth, Robertson, Zerwick, etc... But they all have their own
different approaches to tense and aspect and so it was always a bit
confusing to me.
The problem is that aspect is described by various respected authors as
"ongoing or simple action", "perfective, imperfective, and stative", "a
perspective or vantage point from which action should be viewed (close or
distant)", "punctiliar action and linear action", "action as a complete
whole and action in part", "type of action as opposed to time of action",
"time encoded in the augment and aspect encoded in the verbal stem". and
most recently "time not encoded in the augment".
Young's grammar is much more recent than any of the others (1994). This
newer grammar presents itself as offering contemporary insights from modern
linguistics, and then argues forcefully throughout that there is absolutely
NO time component to the tenses or even within the augment of indicative
verbs but rather that time needs to be entirely divined from context and
that aspect is always what is encoded in the stem.
Having been confused by the plethora of opinions concerning aspect expressed
in past grammars I was hoping that Young's grammar was perhaps breaking new
ground and at last shedding some fresh light for me on a confusing subject.
But I also was wrestling with Young's new perspective because if time is
never encoded in the verb stem then I should instead be seeing the various
nuances of aspect anywhere and everywhere.
In my next posts I will attempt to provide some specific GNT examples of my
wrestlings with tense and aspect.
Rich Lindeman
>Shalom Richard,
>It sounds like you are entangling yourself in metalinguisitc metaphor.
>You probably need to cite real examples in order for others to follow >what
you might be talking about. It also sounds like you might be >following an
approach to the Greek verb that denies a temporal >component to the
indicative verbs. Most would see that as a counsel of >despair.
>If you are referring to perfective versus imperfective aspect, e.g., >DOS
vs DIDOU, then 'inside the event(s)' (DIDOU, imperfective, a.k.a.
>present-stem-formed system, 'be giving, be-in-the-process-of-giving')
>versus 'outside the event(s)' (DOS, perfective, a.k.a.
>aorist-stem-formed system, 'give') might work better for you.
>ERRWSO
>Randall Buth
>--
>Randall Buth, PhD
>www.biblicalulpan.org
>ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
>randallbuth at gmail.com
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