Re: Porter on the present

From: Philip L. Graber (pgraber@emory.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 19 1995 - 09:00:37 EDT


On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, Mari Olsen wrote:

> I guess that's my point--also, apparently, not too clear--there IS no
> difference in meaning that may be reflected in an English translation,

At least not one that has been worked out and systematically adopted yet.

> since the two forms (in the case you mentioned) are equivalent. THe
> theory is just cleaned up, so that what we THOUGHT was English and
> Greek 'tense' is not. The longer answer is that the Greek present is
> marked for imperfective aspect (not tense), and the English present is
> unmarked for both tense and aspect. The English form may therefore,
> by pragmatic implicature (e.g. in the context you mentioned) take on
> the imperfective meaning, namely focus on a situation as it is
> unfolding in time (rather than the perfective focus on a complete(d)
> situation). In other words, to understand what the Greek present means, you
> need to look at what imperfective aspect is, rather than what the
> English translation is in a particular case.

Since Greek present has imperfective aspect, I wonder if a legitimate
option for translating it in narrative (i.e. when it is "historical
present") is the way the imperfect is often translated in a very literal
translation: i.e. LEGEI = "he was saying," rather than "he said." I
believe that Levinsohn wants to say that the historical present
(especially with verbs of saying where it is mostly used in the
synoptics) has a backgrounding effect rather than a highlighting one. One
of the questions I have had since reading Mari's dissertation is what the
difference is between present and imperfect tense when used in narrative.
(Now I have switched to talking about what it means, no longer how to
translate it.) I had suspected that present was a device for making
prominent, but I am not so sure, especially in light of Levinsohn's
discussion in his Coursebook.

Philip Graber Graduate Division of Religion
Graduate Student in New Testament 211 Bishops Hall, Emory University
pgraber@emory.edu Atlanta, GA 30322 USA



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