Rendering imperfective into English (an English question?)

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Stephen Carlson
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Re: Rendering imperfective into English (an English question?)

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Jonathan Robie wrote: July 27th, 2018, 7:47 am I agree that this looks like a translation issue, and maybe a quirk in the English aspectual system. Here are the same examples in a Spanish and a French translation:

Ingressive Imperfect Examples (in Spanish and French)
Thanks for that. I'm struck how often the French translation used the passé simple (perfective) for these imperfects. I thought French literature liked playing with imperfects (e.g. imparfait pittoresque, imparfait de rupture, etc.) more than that.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Stephen Carlson
Posts: 3350
Joined: May 11th, 2011, 10:51 am
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

Re: Rendering imperfective into English (an English question?)

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Rod Decker's 2009 SBL paper on the imperfect in Mark begins with a discussion of inceptive imperfectives:

http://ntresources.com/blog/wp-content/ ... Decker.pdf
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
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