Beats me.
Methinketh that much imagination entereth into the explanation of grammar.
It's an occupational affliction to which we Greek teachers are subject, I
fear. At least I've never visited a textbook upon an innocent world (nor am
I criticizing anyone who has; "they also serve who only stand at the
blackboard and teach," although I have threatened to do so: every one I've
ever read has included at least one assertion or illustration that I would
have regretted.
HOWEVER, I've always thought there was something useful in observing the
tenses of certain Greek verbs:
Present: hISTATAI "He is moving to a standing/halting position"
Aorist: ESTH "He reached a standing position/he halted"
Perfect: hESTHKE(N) "He is standing"
Present: APOQNHiSKEI "He is dying/being executed"
Aorist: APEQANE(N) "He died/was executed"
Perfect: APOTEQNHKE(N) "He is dead"
Another notion I have thought useful in connection with the perfect tense
is Aristotle's conception of "entelechy"--a process that comes to natural
maturation/fulfilment/actualization. The great live oak tree standing
majestically and stretching out its branches in all directions illustrates
the perfect tense of a verb "to oak"; one might see the present tense of
that verb in the growth from acorn to the point at which the full-grown
acorn is itself dropping acorns, at which time one might use the perfect
tense to describe the tree in terms of its present state of full growth--or
one might continue to use the present tense inasmuch as it continues, like
the AESCULUS in Vergil's great metaphor of the tree of life, to grow, year
in, year out. I suppose that's a way of putting it that makes no more sense
to some people, however, than the parade metaphor used by Young.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/