[B-Greek] Re..Imperfect and aorist aspects

Randall Buth randallbuth at gmail.com
Thu Sep 7 11:29:54 EDT 2006


>If the native aspect of the aorist is perfective, or completed
action, how does one arrive at the conclusion that the aspect of the
aorist in the indicative is undefined or unmarked? And if the
imperfect in marked but has exceptions to the rule so that it can have
a more perfective aspect, why is the aorist not considered perfective
in the indicative except for exceptions?

>I can't see why the aspect of the aorist is unmarked, or open, up for grabs
(if I am understanding the term unmarked correctly!), in the indicative if
it is perfective elsewhere, unless there is pattern in the indicative (or
lack of a pattern) to determine the "normal undefined" aspectual use of the
aorist, that in my very limited experience, I am unaware of.
Paul F. Evans>

I'll try this again. You are taking metaphors like the Greek word
AORISTOS as a literal description and then missing some points. The
aorist is not undefined, up-for-grabs, it is not open (sorry Bill, I
think Dionysios only meant 'not continuative, not stative perfect'.
The aorist IS perfective). You would be advised to drop the term
'undefined', it is leading you in the wrong direction, closer to the
imperfect, in fact. Also, the term 'unmarked' in linguistics simply
means the default or most basic term within a set. It does not mean
that it is lacking in definition. (I don't know how the term is used
in Mounce's grammar, but that is irrelevant to common linguistic
parlance.)

Put this in your ears (to quote a non-Septuagintalism in Luke): The
indicative aorist is a perfective aspect (referring to the whole) and
the indicative refers to the past (except in some proverbial/timeless
contexts where everything can be used). The non-indicative aorist is
likewise perfective. It is not marking openendedness or fuzzy-borders.

to what may this be compared? In English people sometimes say that "I
run" is the present tense. (I would prefer to call it the habitual
tense but there are additional complications that we won't go into
here.) However, if you are actually running at the moment of speaking
and refer to that action, you must say "I am running", the real
present tense. Joggers can say "I run" while sitting down. In that
case it is potentially true for any moment except that present. The
point is that the name of a verb structure in a language does not
define the structure. Use defines the structure. People learn
languages without the labels first, then they get the labels closer
and closer to reality, but hopefully do not rely on the labels.  Read
a 1000 lines of narrative story and trust the context. It will come
into focus nicely.

Hope that helps.
blessings
Randall Buth
-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη
שלום לכם וברכות
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
randallbuth at gmail.com


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