Re: aktionsart and subjective

From: Richard Lindeman (richlind@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu Mar 26 1998 - 14:23:39 EST


Mari writes:

>The real issue for the semantics/pragmatics distinction is not whether
>one can choose to visualize things contra the truth conditions, but what
>using a particular grammatical form commits one to.
>

OK... thank you for the clarification here. The question then becomes, to
what degree or extent does the selection of grammatical forms actually
commit a person? Or, as regards to aspect, how strongly is aspect
grammatized in the verbal endings? How strong a current is it in Greek
thought at this particular juncture of history? My suggestion was that it
conveyed perhaps a more gentle stream rather than an overpowering one.

>Another semantic pragmatic note:
>
>Perfective semantically entails that the event is over
>

Are working from a modern English understanding of what Perfective means
here? I don't think that an event necessarily needs to be over with or
completed in order to be either viewed or expressed as Perfective in the
Greek mind.

Blessings,

Rich Lindeman



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:17 EDT