Stephen Carlson wrote:MAubrey wrote:Using infinitives as a base form is a good idea, but its' probably better to use the aorist infinitive. You can derive just about everything from the aorist infinitive, unlike the present and if you're not using accents others are less likely to confuse the forms. Randall has a great article on that point...but I can't remember where it was published off the top of my head.
Are you thinking of: Randall Buth, “Verbs Perception and Aspect: Greek Lexicography and Grammar,”
Biblical Greek Language and Lexicography: Essays in Honor of Frederick W. Danker, ed. B. Taylor, J. Lee, R. Burton, and R. Whitaker (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 177-198?
Yes, I advocate using real words when discussing any language, especially by learners.
So infinitives ἀγαπᾶν and ποιεῖν are a big headstart over *ἀγαπάω and *ποιέω. [Yes, I am aware that *ποιέω exists in Ionic, thank you kindly.]
However, the aorist infinitive does not fully mark the inflexional class.
γελάσαι 'to laugh' and τελέσαι 'to finish' are able to mark their class,
but ἀγαπῆσαι and ποιῆσαι do not distinguish their class and are the more common shape.
Fortunately, the continuative, marks its class:
πληροῦν (-ο), ἀγαπᾶν (-α), ποιεῖν (-ε).
Middles work the same way. The continuative is unambiguous.
Consequently, I typically talk about verbs with aorists like ποιῆσαι 'to do'
but I present vocabulary to students with two forms (ποιῆσαι ποιεῖν) so that they get both 'to do' and 'to be doing' and can hear the appropriate category.
and I recommend saying to oneself ποιῆσαι ποιῆσαι ... ποιεῖν ('to do, to do, ... to be doing'), in that order.