[B-Greek] Imperfect and Aorist Tense-Aspects

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Fri Sep 15 12:54:10 EDT 2006


On Sep 15, 2006, at 2:03 AM, Randall Buth wrote:

> You also mentioned the narrative present. You are correct that they
> momentarily change a deictic centre. A person views the event as
> though they were there. They are also strange in another way,
> aspectually they are quasi-aoristic. They are looking at complete
> events from within (!) without marking their completion. A string of
> these narrative presents A,B,C can proceed thru a series of events
> that were obviously completed sequentially, and the reader is assumed
> to recognize that, yet the verbs only portrary the event as it is
> happening.

While I agree with Carl that shifts in the "deictic centre" aka  
vantage point is probably the key to unlock this whole business,  
there are still facts that seem to cause problems. In the past these  
facts were brushed aside with the catch all "idioms".

An English example I have used before from Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix.

Two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl - Bob Dylan

Two riders were approaching, and the wind begin to howl - Jimi Hendrix

Now why did Jimi Hendrix shift the deictic centre midstream where the  
approach of the riders is past but the howling of the wind is  
present? I suspect Hendrix was translating Dylan's line into Hendrix'  
street language, but that doesn't really address the central issue.

To understand what is going on here do we not need to look beyond the  
tense form of "begin" and talk about tense sequence? The shift from  
"Two riders were approaching" to "and the wind begin to howl" is a  
fact of more significance than the simple use of an historical  
present. The shift from past to historical present puts the speaker  
into the action as it is taking place and makes for a lively  
narrative, not just a report of some past event.

Greek examples of this are welcome if anyone is willing to supply one.


Elizabeth Kline







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