From: Mark Wilson (emory2oo2@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Dec 18 2000 - 13:07:28 EST
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Cindy:
I think Dr. Olsen finds much of Porter and Fanning with which she agrees.
Like Porter, she feels that the Aorist and Present are Aspect only, not
encoding tense (time).
She does, at least to her satisfaction, show that the Imperfect, Perfect,
Pluperfect, and Future are true tenses (each semantically encoding time).
For example, if I understand her correctly, she states that if the
Pluperfect were a true aspect only verbal, it would be used in all temporal
spheres. But, you do not find the Pluperfect used of the future, nor do you
find the Future used in the past.
I think Porter indicates that the Future denotes 'expectancy." If this were
correct, then we would still find occasional uses of the Future form used in
the Past, as the following example might imply:
"Last night, I expected my son to announce his engagement."
I am not sure, but I think you will never find such a usage of the Future.
But would not the Future (+expectancy) fit in this "past" context?
She also indicates that the examples that Porter gives regarding the true
tenses (Imperfect, Perfect, Pluperfect, and Future) still encode their
respective time elements. For example, she believes that each example of the
Imperfect that Porter summons to show it has non-past referring time in
actuality does denote past time. She does the same for the other tense
forms.
She defines the Imperfective and Perfective perhaps differently that Porter.
If a verbal denotes a situation that covers a span of time, then to her, an
Imperfective views the event "during" its nucleus, while a Perfective views
the event at its "ending."
She does agree with Porter that the Aorist, because the past temporal aspect
of it can be cancelled, it can not be a true tense. Same with the Present.
Personally, I am not at the stage in my understanding of Greek to make a
decision one way or the other, but I would genuinely be interested in your
"defense" against her assertions about Aspect and Tense in general.
I assume Rob Decker will jump in here as well. And hopefully others.
Thank you,
Mark Wilson
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