[B-Greek] Update on Greek aspect, semantics and pragmatics

Con Campbell concampbell at mac.com
Sun May 15 13:49:32 EDT 2011


Dear Randall,

Some brief answers to your questions:

1. I agree that the HP is an imperfective form in a perfective setting (as part of the mainline of a narrative) and therefore "sticks out". I don't think I would go so far as to say that its semantics are cancelled in such usage, but probably "makes sense" in Greek in a way that it does not in English (especially since its use is restricted to certain lexemes).

2. I call it the narrative mainline. This is a pragmatic function of the aorist indicative in narrative, which is not restricted to this use of course.

3. No, I regard +past time to be a (strong) pragmatic implication of the spatial metaphor of remoteness. 

4. Sort of; that's why my position is much closer to yours than is usually acknowledged. I totally agree that the aorist and imperfect "normally" refer to the past. My explanation for this, however, differs in that I regard the temporal reference to be pragmatic not semantic. To my mind this allows the "predictability" that you rightly insist upon but also the power of explanation to account for the roughly 15% of aorists that do not (seem) to refer to the past in context. I have only ever regarded remoteness as a metaphor, and therefore its relationship to physical distance is irrelevant. If some do not like such a category, that is of course their prerogative, but I do not think it meaningless. It's a fairly standard assumption that most languages (and cultures) developed from more spatial ways of expression to more temporal ones. I believe that the Classical and Koine periods witness a language in flux from "more spatial" to "more temporal" and this is reflected in its verbal system. Regardless, the inclusion of spatial metaphors (whether correct or not) means that my position is not "aspect only". 

I hope to see you at 505 for some jazz (and any other b-greekers who are willing to come to Sydney)!

Κώστα
______________________________

Dr Constantine R. Campbell
Lecturer in New Testament
Moore College, Sydney

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On 15/05/2011, at 7:45 PM, Randall Buth wrote:

XAIre KonstaNTINE χαῖρε Κονσταντίνε

Konstantinos egrapse
> I do NOT hold to "aspect only" for anything, and differ to Porter
> on this quite dramatically.

This is intriguing. I could use the same words myself when talking
about indicatives.

Regarding the Greek outworking of your point above, a brief update
on some or all of the following questions might be helpful on list.

1. Would you now agree that the "historical present" is a
rhetorical/pragmatic usage in Greek whose [pragmatic/rhetorical]
effect requires it to be used 'against its basic semantics'?
Cf. a recent thread, "Why is the aspect of the historic present
'against its grain'?" (Answering on the other thread would allow us
to focus on just that question.)

2. Would you say that the aorist indicative carries the 'foreground'
in Greek narrative genre?
(If not, would you care to comment on the story in point 4?)

3. Do you now think that the aorist and imperfect Indicatives,
e.g, EPOIHSE, EPOIEI carry a semantic feature of "+past time"
along with their aspectual features?

4. In other words, isn't the Porterite "metaphor of remoteness" a
roundabout way of talking about past time, in both its semantic
and pragmatic uses, without mentioning time?
(We never add e- to futures to mark them "remote futures", or to
any non-indicatives. And by 'remote', we NEVER mean spatially
remote. It does not mark real world 'distance', ever. Which makes
it an opaque, disingenuous metaphor for things that have 95-100%
temporal congruency.
In the example in the 'against the grain' thread, Mk 8.22-26, the
touching, looking, and restoration, were not spatially far away
but 'right there' AND they were the main, central events of the story,
something textlinguists call 'foreground'. Certainly not remote or
marginal. The imperfectives have natural 'backgrounded'
interpretations.)
(and Yes, not a few linguists think that semantic features can
have pragmatic usages.)

> Thanks

You're welcome,
and thank you.

It would be nice to drop by the 505 (for some Greek and jazz).

ἔρρωσο ERRWSO

Ἰωάνης IWANHS (I like to 'misspell' my name like Westcott-Hort
and a 1st century ossuary here in the Rockefeller musuem.)


-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicallanguagecenter.com
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life



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