[B-Greek] Switching Imperfectives to Perfectives
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at ioa.com
Thu Dec 15 22:10:27 EST 2005
This sounds a bit like "let's throw out all the grammar books, since
there really are no rules governing the way Greeks (and non-Greeks)
speak/spoke or write/wrote. I don't think matters are quite so
chaotic; while one may explain exceptional constructions in terms of
broader categories of aspect, most Greek present tenses and aorists
are NOT confusing and are, in fact, pretty intelligible to anyone
who's spent a couple years or more with Greek.
One thing that those learning Greek must come to terms with, however,
is that some idiomatic usages may fly in the face of what one has
learned about present tense (and I think it's the present tense
that's the hardest to pin down). There are particular verbs that
behave in particular ways -- you just have to learn them: ERREI is a
present tense with a perfective meaning: "he/she's GONE, vanished,
left without a trace" or hHKW: "I've arrived." There are the perfect
tenses with present temporal force: OIDA, "I know" and hESTHKA, "I am
standing." I suspect there are idiomatic verb usages such as these in
most languages. But these do not mean that the patterns one has
learned are pointless.
On Dec 15, 2005, at 9:42 PM, Mitch Larramore wrote:
> The recent discussions on Aspect, especially those
> defending the aspect-only (Porter) view, seems to be
> more subjective than I had originally thought. I can't
> help but wonder if someone with a lot of time on
> his/her hands could not defend the position that
> Aorist verbs are Imperfective and Present tense verbs
> are Perfective. Could he/she not argue that the
> Present tense verb is used here or there to stress a
> Perfective aspect. He/She would probably add something
> like, "We have to think like ancient Greeks, not like
> modern English people." Even on "the coming one"
> (ERCOMENOS) now being discussed, why not say, "The
> present tense actually is used to portray the coming
> as a completed event. The writer is using it for
> rhetorical effect, etc." After all, aspect is not tied
> to reality, but how the writer/speaker wants to
> portray the event. I can't help but think that someone
> could write a Verbal Aspect book like Porter, take the
> postion that Aorists are imperfective and Presents are
> perfective, and start reinterpreting the
> Tradionalist's (mis)understanding of ancient Greek.
>
> Mitch Larramore
> Sugar Land, Texas
>
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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