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b-greek-digest V1 #589
b-greek-digest Sunday, 26 February 1995 Volume 01 : Number 589
In this issue:
Bibles for Sale
Re: Lord's prayer
Re: Lord's prayer
there their now
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From: "Craig W. Beard" <CBEARD@beowulf.mhsl.uab.edu>
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 17:11:05 CST
Subject: Bibles for Sale
I have a number of Bibles from my own collection I wish to sell.
Most of them are hardcover or softcover; a couple are leather. As
with the books I have offered for sale on this list before, the
price for each of these Bibles is half the list price. If you are
interested in seeing a copy of the list, send me a message at the
Internet address below.
Craig W. Beard
cbeard@beowulf.mhsl.uab.edu
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From: Micheal Palmer <mpalmes@email.unc.edu>
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 22:53:45 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Lord's prayer
On Fri, 24 Feb 1995, James D. Ernest wrote:
> Don't the aorist imperatives in 6:6 intend a habit just as surely as the
> presents in the context? Perhaps the aorists appears there because of the
> series of concrete actions envisioned. It seems to me that just about
> every handy generalization on the meaning of these aspects that I've
> ever heard is wrong. We do should always quash them, because they
> invariably turn up misused in sermons.... (Im My Humble Opinion,
> of course, as always....
Yes, I think you are right about the verbs in 6:6. I don't think this
would be a problem for Fanning's view, though, since he does NOT argue
that the present is used in contexts implying action that should become
characteristic of one's behavior WHILE THE AORIST IS NOT. He argues (and
I *think* I am representing him correctly here) that the present imperative
tends to imply action which should become characteristic, while the
aorist is UNMARKED for this quality. That is, the aorist is neutral on
this point. Sometimes, however, the context in which an aorist is placed
will give it an implication which may include customary or habitual
action, as in 6:6.
In my earlier comment I did not mean to imply that Fanning's approach is
without problems. Where both Fanning and Stanley Porter succeed IMHO is
in challenging us to move beyond the traditional explanations of the uses
of present and aorist imperative (among other things). Both of their
proposals leave us with a number of problems. I merely suggested that
Fanning's proposal should be read. A more recent approach which
interacts creatively with both Fanning and Porter's approach, is the
dissertation of Mari Olsen, "A Semantic and Pragmatic Model of Lexical
and Grammatical Aspect" (Northwestern University, 1994). Olsen makes
clear progress on the issue of verbal aspect by incorporating recent work
in pragmatics. She also maintains a clear distinction between 'lexical
aspect' (what individual verbs contribute to the aspect of a particular
statement) and grammatical aspect (what the tense forms contribute to the
aspect of a particular statement. This distinction is crucial, since as
you point out, there are numerous exceptions to any general statement
made about what a particular grammatical form means. She handles these
'exeptions' well in terms of the contribution of individual
verbs--lexical aspect (completely aside from there tense).
Besides this important distinction between lexical and grammatical
aspect, Olsen is able to give a provocative account of the contribution
of context (which is what happens in Mt 6:6 set up by SU DE (OTAN
PROSEUCHI which clearly denotes customary action) by her treatment of
pragmatics (meaning in context).
Well, my comments on Olsen's dissertation are certainly a gross
oversimplification of a 368 page document, but I hope she will correct
any misstatements since (I think) she is on this list. The abstract for
her dissertation should soon be available on the World Wide Web at
http://www.uwa.edu.au/HGrk.
Micheal W. Palmer
Mellon Research Fellow
Department of Linguistics
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
------------------------------
From: Micheal Palmer <mpalmes@email.unc.edu>
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 23:04:20 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Lord's prayer
On Fri, 24 Feb 1995, James D. Ernest wrote:
> Don't the aorist imperatives in 6:6 intend a habit just as surely as the
> presents in the context? Perhaps the aorists appears there because of the
> series of concrete actions envisioned. It seems to me that just about
> every handy generalization on the meaning of these aspects that I've
> ever heard is wrong. We do should always quash them, because they
> invariably turn up misused in sermons.... (Im My Humble Opinion,
> of course, as always....
In my earlier response to this note, I forgot to mention that both
Fanning and Olsen make comments which would seem to me to agree with
what I take to be an assumption behind James' statement, 'Perhaps the
aorists appears there because of the series of concrete actions
envisioned'. That is, both Fanning and Olsen argue that the particular
verbs involved play a major role in determining the aspect of a
statement, not just the tense forms involved.
Micheal Palmer
------------------------------
From: Micheal Palmer <mpalmes@email.unc.edu>
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 1995 00:54:54 -0500 (EST)
Subject: there their now
On Sat, 25 Feb 1995, Micheal Palmer wrote:
> . . . She handles these
> 'exeptions' well in terms of the contribution of individual
> verbs--lexical aspect (completely aside from there tense).
Oops! Completely aside from *their* tense. I can't believe that _I_ made
that mistake! It reminds me of a newspaper headline for an article on
illiteracy I once saw: "If you can read this your lucky." I laughed
hysterically. Now it doesn't seem so funny.
Micheal W. Palmer
------------------------------
End of b-greek-digest V1 #589
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