Re: Question on Matthew 19:9 (tense or aspect)

From: Wayne Leman (wleman@mcn.net)
Date: Thu Apr 27 2000 - 12:05:48 EDT


<x-charset iso-8859-1>And FWIW, these are actually *aspect* categories rather than tense. "Tense"
is a misnomer which was applied to Greek aspect many years ago and has
continued on in Greek grammar and syntax books. Tense refers to the *time*
something occurred (e.g. past, far past, present, or will occur in the case
of a future tense). Aspect
refers to the quality of the action, such as whether it occurred at a point
in time (aorist, also known as punctiliar; imperfective--no end point in
focus, etc.). It's OK, for purposes of discussion to continue using the
label "tense" as long as we recognize that Greek tense is really not tense,
but aspect. Stanley Porter has done extensive research and publication on
Greek aspect and other Greek scholars have written about it also.

A rose by any other name is still a rose, but since we do have accurate
linguistic labels for two related, but different, verb categories, tense and
aspect (a third, related, category is mode or mood), we might as well use
the term which is most accurate.

I'm sure this is old information for many of you on the list and I'm sure
it's been mentioned many times in the past, but it doesn't hurt to mention
it again. Eventually, Greek professors will get the terminology straight on
this one since many profs have been alert to progress in Greek studies and
pedagogy.

Wayne
Bible translation discussion list (new address):
http://www.egroups.com/group/bible-translation

>Dear Mr. Maxey,
>
>The Present tense "basically" emphasises the action rather than giving it
as a mere reference (aorist) or emphasising
>the results (perfect). In emphasising the action, the present tense in
Greek and English views the action internally
>and on-going (continuous), generally with the begtinning and ending of the
action out of view (although one or the
>other may be contextually obvious).

<snip>

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