[B-Greek] Aktionsart

Beata Urbanek baurbanek at op.pl
Fri Feb 25 02:58:35 EST 2005


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
To: "José Antonio Septién González de Cosío" <jaseptien at prodigy.net.mx>
Cc: <B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 9:21 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Aktionzart


At 1:41 PM -0600 2/24/05, José Antonio Septién González de Cosío wrote:
>I am studyng the infinitive greek and trying to understand what kind of
>action (aktionzart) is expressed by  1)the infinitive present middle voice
>and 2) the infinitive orist middle voice. I just couldn't to see anything
>about this issue in many greek grammars.
>Thanks for your help.

The word is actually "Aktionsart" with an S, not a Z; it's German for "kind
of action" and it refers to the inherent nature of a particular verb,
e.g.., whether it is essentially a a verb denoting a process or rather a
verb denoting complete performance. You may say that the Aktionsart of a
present middle infinitive is "durative" as in POREUESQAI, "be on one's way"
or that the Aktionsart of an aorist middle infinitive is "perfective" as in
GRAYASQAI, "get something in writing." Some verbs by virtue of the
essential mode of action they indicate may be more commonly used in the
present, others in the aorist.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243

Now I am confused. I thought the term Aktionsart refers to the kinds of
actions represented by diffrent tenses/modes and not particular verbs. (I've
just looked it up in BDF) Of course, you can't have stative verbs punctiliar
or slam the door duratively, so it is connected. So, my question is: what is
more important: tense/mode or nature of particular verb? Or maybe the
quetsion is wrongly stated...

Beata Urbanek

cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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