[B-Greek] Semantic Features and Rhetorical Use of the Greek Perfect

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Tue Mar 9 00:41:55 EST 2010


off list contribution, cited with permission. 

On Mar 8, 2010, at 5:25 PM, Calvin & Ruth Mathys wrote:

> I think the definition of the perfect needs to be clarified.  A perfect
> describes a verb-situation that happened in the past and also has present
> relevance.  It *doesn't* say that the verb-situation itself persists to the
> present moment, let alone beyond it.  What it says is that the past
> situation has some *significance* now.  (It also doesn't specify how far
> back in the past the verb-situation took place, c.f. "it is written".)
> 

If present *significance* is the meaning of the perfect form then what about other tense-aspect forms, do the lack present *significance*? I really don't understand this. 

The original discussion had a more or less negative purpose, to point out the weakness of affirming "permanence" as a semantic attribute of the perfect in 1Jn 4:2. It is much easier to point out what the perfect doesn't mean than it is to establish what it does mean.  I am certainly a confirmed agnostic on verb aspect theory.



Elizabeth Kline
 






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