[B-Greek] Imperfect and Aorist, for Bert

Rolf Furuli furuli at online.no
Wed Sep 20 01:10:17 EDT 2006


Dear Eddie,

See my comments below.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eddie Mishoe" <edmishoe at yahoo.com>
To: "Rolf Furuli" <furuli at online.no>; <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 11:03 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Imperfect and Aorist, for Bert


> Rolf:
>
>> Are you saying that aorist in all cases signals
>> *completed* action or state?
>
> Do you mean despite lexical aspect and other
> grammatical intrusion? Far more is at work than simply
> grammatical aspect.

There are many factors that work together and which the sender uses to make 
visible the meaning for the receiver. Each of these factors should be 
defined in order to understand its interplay with other factors. Often 
aspect (the perfective and imperfective) is defined by metephors which do 
not have their basis in scientific parameters, and such explanations are 
unsatisfactory, since metaphors can be interpreted in many different ways. 
The claim often used in older studies of aspect that the perfective aspect 
signaled completed action, that is, that the action was completed at 
reference time, is a clearcut definition which can be tested. My question to 
Randal was if he would use this explanation in relation to the Greek aorist.
>
> A Greek can describe a waterfall with the Aorist, by
> which he simply would mean consider the waterfall at
> any given moment, and of course in relation to a
> deictic center.
>
>
>
>
>
> Eddie Mishoe
> Pastor
>
Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo 





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