From: Jonathan Robie (jonathan@texcel.no)
Date: Sat Jan 17 1998 - 21:29:29 EST
Micheal Palmer was telling me about an article that says that the English
perfect may not have specific event time reference. Consider the following:
Q. Have you eaten?
A. Yes, I ate at six today.*
Q. Have you eaten?
A. Yes, I have eaten at six today.*
This second answer is not really grammatical. The article claims that the
reason it seems strange is that the English perfect is used for undisclosed
event time, and this is what distinguishes it from the past.
That got me to wondering about the Greek perfect. The "undisclosed event
time" discription is consistent with the idea that the perfect focuses on
the state resulting from an event, not on the event itself - after all, the
time of the event can't even be stated, at least, not with the English
perfect.
Is this also true for the Greek perfect? Can I say something like THi
TRITHi hHMERA HGGIKEN hH BASILEIA TWN OURANWN ? ("on the third day, the
kingdom of the heavens has drawn near") Can anybody think of a case where
the perfect is used with specific time reference?
Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________
Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com
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