[B-Greek] Speaking clearly: grammatical aspect, lexical aspect
Jonathan Robie
jwrobie at mindspring.com
Fri Jul 6 06:30:53 EDT 2007
I'm trying to find clear vocabulary for aspect and Aktionsart. Here are my tentative conclusions:
1. Aspect, by itself, is a vague term used inconsistently by different authors, conflating lexical aspect and grammatical aspect, and sometimes other things.
2. Aktionsart, by itself, is a vague term used inconsistently by different authors, conflating lexical aspect and grammatical aspect, and sometimes other things. Robertson in particular uses this term very broadly (as Palmer observes here: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/test-archives/html4/1997-05/18811.html)
3. Lexical Aspect has a single, clear meaning.
4. Grammatical Aspect has a single clear meaning.
True?
If so, we should all take the Aspect Pledge:
"I will not use the term Aktionsart or the term Aspect by itself, I will refer only to Lexical Aspect, Grammatical Aspect, or other terms that are well defined across authors."
Jonathan
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