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Introduction
From last time we presented Part 1 of this
tutorial, A
Not Too Tense Introduction to Greek Aspect, by Paul Bell.
Part 2 of the aspect tutorial briefly explores the practical
implications of the discussion in the first part, with parallel
sentences for comparison, and some examples from Greek
literature.
Now that we've covered some of the theory of aspect,
we turn to examples. We'll touch only briefly on aspect in simple
sentences since it is in the relationship between main and subordinate
clauses that aspect is most likely to be confusing to beginners. Traditional
Greek instruction, in particular, is apt to cause problems: when you've
been told the aorist is primarily a past tense, the aorist
imperative is going to seem puzzling: "raised the sails" doesn't make
much sense.
We are going to omit conditional sentences from our
examples. What we have to say about aspect applies to these, too,
and in fact simplifies the usual inventory of conditional types.
But explaining the additional role of tense and mood would distract
from our focus on aspect.
In the discussion below the most important thing
to keep in mind - and which we'll repeat a few times for good measure
- is that only the indicative verb forms of the present, aorist
and perfect may have tense. All the rest do not.
Durative/Present Stem
Verb forms made from the durative stem (traditionally
known as the "present" stem) show imperfective aspect. In the indicative
this includes the present and imperfect conjugations: ble/pw
I see, I am seeing, e)/blepon
I was seeing.
Above we said that the imperfective aspect shows
an action in progress, in the middle of going on. So, in non-indicative
clauses the present forms view the action as on-going, generally
at the same time as the main verb. For example, badi/zwn
le/gei (while) walking, he speaks. Here the
present form le/gei does indicate tense, but badi/zwn indicates aspect, namely, that the walking is seen as
ongoing at the time of the speaking.
If we change the tense of the main verb: badi/zwn e)/legen, (while) walking he was speaking.
Again, the main verb indicates tense, the participle aspect.
Infinitives and imperatives formed from the present
stem also indicate aspect rather than tense. ou)/
fhsi ou(/tw le/geinhe denies that he is saying
so. The semantics of the various imperatives, positive and negative,
can get a little complex, but when when a speaker gives a command
in the present imperative he sees the action as on-going, possibly
taking a while: tau=ta poiei=te do these things!
William Annis is Unix
System Administrator (i.e., a professional computer geek) in Madison,
Wisconsin. He divides his spare time between reading history and bad
science fiction, bonsai and classical languages, especially Greek.
William combines his computer skills with classical studies at the web
site, www.aoidoi.org, which is dedicated to the study of classical
Greek poetry, and includes articles about Greek meter and poetics, the
full texts of Greek poems, often accompanied commentaries with
vocabulary, syntax and cultural notes. William is a moderator for the
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