[B-Greek] : Questions about verbal aspect.
Bruce Prince
bruceprince at bigpond.com
Tue Jul 10 04:27:24 EDT 2007
Comment on this subject is open to others beside Mr Penner and will be
gratefully received.
Bruce Prince
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Prince
Sent: Monday, 9 July 2007 7:54 PM
Dear Mr Penner
I found your explanation of how the aspect shifts when the reference point
changes quite interesting, and have sometimes wondered if the Biblical Greek
for Luke 23:43 substantiates the placing of the comma in English - before or
after "today".
Bruce Prince
Australia
-----Original Message----Ken Penner wrote:
> It IS true that the same objective event can be described using different
(grammatical) aspects, just as the same objective event can be described
using different tenses.
> John read the book yesterday. After he had read the book, he ate
breakfast, because he had promised, "I will read the book before breakfast."
This tense shift is not a totally subjective choice of the author; the tense
shifted because the time of speaking (="speech time") changed.
> Similarly, the aspect shifts when the "reference point" changes. The
reference point is the time about which an assertion is made.
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