Tense, Time, Aspect and the Ancient Greek Verb by Jerome Moran early every – no, every – Greek The questions in the first sentence 3. In Greek the tense of a verb may Ngrammar and course book, even (‘deliberative’ questions, therefore in denote something different from or the most comprehensive (in English, the subjunctive) refer to present (or additional to the time at which the at any rate), gives a very skimpy, perhaps future) time. But one of act, event, occurrence, process, state perfunctory and unhelpful account — the verbs (εἴπωμεν) is in a past denoted by the verb is located. In insofar as it gives any account at all – of tense (aorist). The second sentence particular, it may denote something what ‘aspect’ is and how exactly it is refers to past time, but one of the called ‘aspect’. related to verb tense and time (which verbs (βούλοιτο) is in the present tend to be conflated). Most of the tense. 4. Whether the tense of a Greek verb books and articles on the subject of denotes time or/and aspect depends the aspect of the Greek verb are What is going on? The answer is in the first place on the mood of the accessible only to the professional something called ‘aspect’, and its verb (‘the form which a verb philologist, and can’t therefore be connection with tense and time. Just assumes in order to reflect the easily applied by non-specialists to the note for now a difference in the manner (modus) in which the speaker understanding of the actual usage of kind of things denoted by the verbs conceives the action’ (Woodcock)). Greek writers or to the imitation of in bold. The verb in the aorist tense ‘depends’ here does not mean ‘is their usage when translating into their denotes an action; the verbs in the determined by’. So, it is not the fact language. This article sets out to present tense denote a state, or that a verb is in the subjunctive remedy this situation by giving a clear certainly something that is not an mood that it uses either the present and (within limits) comprehensive action. or aorist tense; it is rather that in the explanation of aspect as it applies to subjunctive mood these tenses the Greek verb. 2. What exactly aspect is, we shall see indicate something other than time, later. As for tense and time, the first viz. aspect. The Greek verb is used 1. Consider these two sentences, in thing to note is that the words in four moods (indicative, particular the verbs in bold: ‘tense’ and ‘time’ are not imperative, subjunctive, optative) synonymous and their meanings and two ‘non-finite’ (as some people î ; (Euripides, εἴπωμεν ἢ σιγ μεν should not be confused, as they so like to think of them) moods Ion 758) often are. Tense is a grammatical (participle and infinitive). (I take a ‘Are we to speak or are we to be (for want of a better word) concept, finite verb to be one that has a silent?’ and is simply a feature of a verb, the definite tense, number and person. most familiar function of which is The infinitive has a tense only; the to locate what it denotes in time. It participle lacks a person.) ἐθήρευεν ἀπο ἵππου, ὁπότε γυμνάσαι is less clear what kind of concept βούλοιτο ἑαυτόν τε αì τοὺϛ ἵππουϛ (Xenophon, Anabasis 1.2.7) time is, since it is not obvious what 5. In general, the tense of the indicative time is. However, for the purposes and the participle denotes time. ‘He used to hunt on horseback, of this discussion the ordinary, (The aorist and imperfect indicatives whenever he wanted to give himself layperson’s, understanding of time also indicate aspect in past time, as and his horses some exercise.’ will suffice. we shall see.) In general, the tense of The Journal of Classics Teaching 17 (34) p.58-61 © The Classical Association 2016. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits Downloaded58 from https://www.cambridge.org/corenon-commercial re-use, distribution,. IP address: and170.106.34.90 reproduction, on 30 in Sep any 2021 medium, at 07:46:04 provided, subject the to original the Cambridge work is Core unaltered terms ofand use, is available properly at cited. The written https://www.cambridge.org/core/termspermission of Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/S205863101600026X University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work. the infinitive and the optative is being viewed differently. It is the features of the Greek verb; it is an denotes aspect. The tense of the difference between seeing once omnipresent feature, you might say. imperative and subjunctive indicates (aorist) and going on seeing Certainly, one cannot hope to write aspect, without reference to time. (present). (A similar distinction can anything like authentic, idiomatic, (For the main exceptions to these be seen in the case of hearing and ancient Greek without knowledge generalisations see the sub-sections listening to.) In the indicative mood, of it and how it works. Also, when of 10 below.) of course, the difference would be reading Greek one cannot denoted by the aorist and imperfect understand the nuances of an 6. Where the difference of tense of tenses. But remember that the already versatile, sophisticated and the verb denotes a difference of imperfect tense exists only in the subtle language without a more or aspect only, in nearly all cases the indicative, so that other moods have less constant awareness of it. tenses concerned are the present to use some other tense (the and the aorist. Strictly speaking, present) to convey the meaning of 10. And now for a more detailed differences of aspect extend to the imperfect in the indicative. (This analysis of tense, time and aspect, other tenses as well (e.g. the is what happens in clauses of taking each of the moods in turn, ‘resultative’ form of the perfect), indirect statement that do not after some preliminary observations. but these will hardly ever concern employ the indicative to represent the student. an imperfect or pluperfect indicative 10.1 The past tenses of the indicative, the in the direct speech: the optative, aorist and the imperfect, not only 7. To help one to understand what infinitive and participle use present indicate past time but also aspect is, let us think about the for imperfect and perfect for differentiate between aspect. This different sorts of things a verb – a pluperfect.)1 does not happen with the present or verb in English – can represent. It future tenses. For example, as we can stand for an action, event, Some verbs by their very meaning have seen, different tenses are used occurrence, process or state. The and the inherent nature of the for ‘he saw’ (aorist) and ‘he watched’ same verb can denote all or most activity they denote will incline to (imperfect). But there are not of these. Consider the verb ‘to one aspect rather than another, as we different present tenses for ‘he sees’ stand’ (or ‘to sit’). This can denote see in the case of ‘catch sight of ’ and and ‘he is watching’, or different an act (‘he stood up’, i.e. he got up), ‘watch’ or ‘hear’ and ‘listen to’. Verbs future tenses for ‘he will see’ and ‘he a process (‘he was standing up’, i.e. that denote a process or a state will watch’ that correspond to the he was getting up), a state (‘he belong to this category. However, in uses of the aorist and imperfect for stood’ or ‘he was standing’). In the case of most verbs the aspect past time. Why not, if the Greeks Greek these would be ἔστη (aorist), and tense used must have depended thought it so important to mark ἵστατο (imperfect), εἱστήει on whether what the verb denotes differences of aspect? What is so (pluperfect). These are all different was viewed as single, uninterrupted, special about past time and past ways of viewing or regarding standing. completed (aorist), or whether it was tenses? Perhaps things only just In other words, standing can be viewed as repeated, continuous or happening in the present or not yet seen from several different aspects. otherwise interrupted and happening in the future seemed incomplete (present, and (indicative) inherently incomplete and 8. We should now be in a better imperfect). This is the case with unfinished (or not even yet begun), position to understand what the conative (‘tried to …’), inchoative/ so that the distinctions marked by aspect of a verb is. It is the way in inceptive (‘began to …’) and iterative the aorist and imperfect did not which what is denoted by the verb is (‘used to …’) verbs, all of which seem to apply. viewed by the speaker/writer. In convey the idea of something begun general, where the tense of the verb but interrupted and not finished and Note that (except for the imperfect indicates a difference of aspect only over and done with. We must also and aorist indicative) in general (and not of time), the present tense remember that the Greeks may not where tense is used to indicate time is used to indicate a process, state, necessarily have viewed actions, it cannot also indicate aspect. But, as ongoing or repeated act/event/ events etc. in the same way that we we shall see, this (outside the occurrence. The aorist tense is used do, and that differences of aspect indicative and participle) is the case to indicate a single, completed might mark distinctions of which we in a small number of instances only, action or occurrence (not a process are completely unaware.