First, to Jonathan's original post:
Did you ever see my response from early yesterday to the question
originally posed--drawing on David Mills' post about the English present
perfect and speculating on overlaps with aorist usage?
1. I think that sometimes Greek perfect participles show an ambiguity that
is comparable to that of English "passive participles": KEKOPIAKWS I'd
translate "exhausted (from travel)" and raise the question: is it a real
participle or is it an adjective? The stative function underscores present
condition; the phrase EK THS ODOIPORIAS indicates the reason for the
condition and does indeed point to happenings that have occasioned this
exhaustion--but surely the emphasis is on the present condition.
2. KATA TO EIWQOS AUTWi: Although to be sure EIWQOS originated as a pf.
ptc. of EISKW, it has become (already was in classical Attic) pretty much a
neuter noun in its own right (like some others TO EIKOS, TO SUMBEBHKOS, TO
PEFUKOS), meaning "custom" or "habitual practice," quite comparable in fact
to Latin HABITUS for "habit," a 4th declension noun deriving originally
fromthe participle of HABEO, "have." If you want to give the participial
element a "wooden" equivalent here, you could make it "according to what
was customary for him." Here too you might well argue that the stative
quality of the perfect has transformed the participle into a descriptive
adjective here used as a substantive--yet enough of a verb to require that
dative complement, AUTWi.
3. The last two examples, hO TO hEN TALANTON *EILHFWS* and hOI hUPHRETAI
ANQRAKIAN *PEPOIHKOTES* are both substantival participles best conveyed by
relative clauses and pluperfect verbs ("who had received the one talent"
and "who had made a charcoal fire")--BUT it is worth noting that although
the perfect participle is employed inthese two examples, an aorist could
readily be substituted for each of them without altering the sense in the
least: we could just as readily have hO TO hEN TALANTON *LABWN* and hOI
hUPHRETAI ANQRAKIAN POIHSANTES--for my part, at any rate, I don't think
there's one whit of difference between the perfect participles and the
corresponding aorist participles. I would put this together with my
observations yesterday and argue that we have several instances of the
perfect and the aorist coalescing functionally--and quite honestly, I think
these last two are instances where classical Attic is more likely to have
used an aorist participle.
Then to George:
At 10:51 AM -0400 6/06/98, dalmatia@eburg.com wrote:
>The only way I have been able to make sense of this issue is to see
>the Greek perfect as 'conclusive', because it talks about an action
>that is concluded. [Likewise the Greek present is 'progressive'
>because it talks about an action that is in progress, and the aorist
>is inceptive because it talks about an action that has begun.]
>Actions begin, progress, and conclude, and the Greek seems to have a
>verb form for each of these 'aspects' of an action ~ The aorist, the
>'progressive' system of verbs, and the 'perfective' system of verbs.
Unless I'm mistaken, George, you're looking to find a rational symmetry
relating the present (which you call progressive), aorist (which you call
inceptive), and perfect (which you call conclusive). But I don't think the
symmetry is there, or if there is one, it's not the one you're pointing to.
I rather think that 'perfective' better describes the aorist than it does
the perfect, and that 'inceptive' is not at all adequate for the aorist. A
Greek-speaker who wanted to say "I started running" would use the
imperfect, ETRECON, not the aorist, EDRAMON. Rather as 'perfective' the
aorist could be used to answer the question, "Did you run this morning,
dear?" with "NAI, EDRAMON." ('Yes, I got my running done.')
You want to see the "aspects" simplified as "present"--action viewed from
within, "aorist"--action viewed as a whole from the beginning of it, and
"perfect"--action viewed as a whole from its conclusion--but I think this
endeavor brings things into a relationship that isn't their real one,
except, perhaps, for the "present"--action viewed from within. But the
other two are not to be contrasted with each other at all: Aorist is action
viewed as a whole, while Perfect is more state consequent upon action or
change--and perfect and pluperfect really are analogous to present and
imperfect, as is evident in the pluperfect of John 18:18 EISTHKEISAN DE hOI
DOULOI cited by Jonath
an above and translated (correctly) like an imperfect, "were standing."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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