From: Rolf Furuli (furuli@online.no)
Date: Fri Dec 11 1998 - 11:17:26 EST
Randall Buth wrote:
>{g. kilbrai wrote:}
>>I am finding the whole concept of aspect quite fascinating compared to
>English (where it doesn't really
>>exist). What then is the relative importance of Greek aspect?
>{end quote}
>
>aspect exists in english.!
>it is just not handled morphologically on the verb but with auxillaries.
>[it is hebrew that has partially "ignored" aspect since both tense and
>aspect have been lumped into one dichotomy. hence the problem of hebraists
>to "define" what is happening. cf. gn. 37.28 "they were passing by"
>narrative prefix tense translated by imperfect (!) in LXX]
>
>english:
>"while I WAS WRITING an email my daughter BROUGHT me some coffee." . . .
>
>this story would develop the note about daughter and coffee if it were
>well-wruitten. the email was "backgrounded".
>
>read lots of greek and relate it to other greek texts.
>
>greek is very pedantic about aspect since every non-indicative event-word
>must be marked for aspect (e.g. aorist versus continuative subjunctive,
>optative, infinitive, and to some degree participle, though relative tense
>plays a role with aorist and continuative participles) to illustrate:
>Hebrew can say "Give us our rightful bread". Greek must say either "dos --
>Give us [this time] our bread" OR " didou -- Be giving us [over and over]
>our bread". Both are right and both appear in the canonical gospels. the
>point is that Greek requires one or the other, a choice had to have been
>made.
>
Dear Randall,
I think that some of your views expressed above may mislead the reader.
Particularly dangerous is it to compare English and Greek as far as aspect
is concerned. The Danish linguist, Carl Backe ("Verbal Aspect", 1985)
compared Russian and English aspect. He said (p 5):
"Since aspect is probably one of the most controversial areas not only in
language-specific grammars but also in general linguistics, it is
impossible to refer to any single generally accepted definition. However,
most definitions in the literature have as their central theme
"Gesichtspunkt, unter dem ein vorgang betrachtet wird" (Porzig 1927;152),
"the speaker/writer's view of the action or situation described."
If one try to understand Greek aspect in the light of English
"continuous/past continuous versus past tense/perfect, the student will
almost certainly fall into the trap of defining Greek aspect with
Aktionsart terms such as "durative" and "punctual". My advice to those
struggling with Greek aspect, is to try to find the the *differences*
between the continuous tenses of English and the Greek imperfective aspect
rather than the similarities, because the differences are more profound.
The student should realize that there both is a quantitative and a
qualitative difference.
Much better is it to compare Hebrew and Greek aspect, which in my view are
of exaxtly the same nature, except that Greek imperfect codes both for
aspect (the imperfective one) and past time, and aorist codes for aspect
(the perfective one) and possibly past time. I challenge your claim that
tense is grammaticalized in biblical Hebrew. B.K. Waltke and M. O'Connor,
"Biblical Hebrew Syntax", 1990, pp 459,460 says about the tense and
waw-conversive theory: "The theory has, however, tremedous weaknesses."
They continue and ask: "How can forms which "represent" all three English
major tenses have a primarily temporal value?"
The best way to learn about Greek aspect is to study Greek texts, but I
teach my students who both have some knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, that to
study the versatile use of Hebrew aspect may greatly help the understanding
of Greek aspect. This is so because in Greek we have to account for two
factors when we study verbs, both tense and aspect, but in biblical Hebrew
we have to account for just one factor, namely aspect. It is easier to
handle one than two factors. I suppose this is the very opposite of what
you teach your students.
Regards
Rolf
Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo
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