From: Brian Sullivan (bsullivan@dingoblue.net.au)
Date: Tue Sep 05 2000 - 01:31:33 EDT
Dear Frank,
Years back, when I first discovered aktionstart it was from the following
reference. I hope it helps.
It is from C D F Moules “An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek” on page 5
(1953, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
“A. Aktionsart
The ethos of English verbs concentrates attention mainly on the time to
which an event is referred—past, present, or future. In Greek, on the other
hand, this is probably not the most fundamental question; and the
interpretation of many N.T. passages depends not a little on the
recognition that, to the Greek mind, another consideration appears to have
presented itself first—namely the nature of the event, or (to use a German
word which has become a technical term of grammarians) the Aktionsart (‘the
kind of action’). Generally speaking, the first question that the Greek
writer seems to ask himself is not ‘When did (or will) this happen?’ but
‘Am I conceiving of it as protracted or as virtually instantaneous?’
Moulton has represented this pictorially by popularizing the terms ‘linear’
and ‘punctiliar’ to denote the two chief contrasted types of
action—protracted like a line and focused into a point’
In English the idea of protracted action can as a rule only be conveyed by
the use of some auxiliary word or words; e.g. ‘to be releasing’ is a
‘linear’ phrase, while ‘to release’ is (or at least may be) ‘punctiliar’;
‘he was releasing’ is ‘linear’, but ‘he released’ is definitely
‘punctiliar’. Greek, however, expresses this distinction more neatly by
altering the form of a single word; e.g. ballein (Present Infinitive) is
‘to be throwing’, while balein (Aorist Infinitive) is simply ‘to throw’;
ballein is ‘linear’, but balein is ‘punctiliar’. Thus, the first question
to ask about a Greek verb stem is whether it expresses ‘linear’ or
‘punctiliar’ Aktionsart.
It ought to be added that both in Greek and English there are some verbs
which, owing to their very meaning, can only be either ‘linear’ or
‘punctiliar’ (not both). Thus, ‘to snatch’ is necessarily ‘punctiliar’, and
the Imperfect, ‘he was snatching a few moments of sleep’, can, in the
nature of the case, only refer in reality to the protracted result of a
‘punctiliar’ act—’ he was enjoying the rest which he snatched’ (at a given
moment—’ punctiliar’). “
Brian Sullivan
-----Original Message-----
From: ArtFrankD@aol.com [mailto:ArtFrankD@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 5 September 2000 7:45 AM
To: Biblical Greek
Subject: [b-greek] continuous action
I hear often aphrase which describes a continuous or on-going action, but
I
cannot find it elsewhere. The phrase is: LINEAR ACTION SART (ck spelling).
Is
it an accurate application and wording and what is its etymology? Thanks,
Art.
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