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The Logos Academic Blog

Why Verbal Aspect Improves Preaching, Part 3: Case Study

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By Donald C. McIntyre

See also Part 1 and Part 2.

A Case Study in Matthew 2:1–12

There are forty-seven verbal forms in this pericope; all but 10 verbal forms are perfective aspect. Of those ten forms that are not perfective, one is stative, two are future, and the remaining six are imperfect or present tense. Porters method combines the aspect found in the tense of the verbs with associated elements that are attached to the mood. Applying his theory will begin with the most basic argument of his theory, that imperfective aspect is “defined foreground” information, and then proceed to his views on the perfect tense, where he finds the aspect to be stative, and “well defined foreground information” for discourse purposes. The analysis will end with a discussion of Porter on mood before explaining the future tense, since Porter does not give the future tense an aspect but leaves it as a mood of expectation. It should be noted that since the aorist is “main line” to the discourse, the aorist tense verbs should be seen as the basic plot structure, which is slowed down by the foregrounding devices.

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Understanding Greek Verbs

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Part 4 of the series Observations from a Linguistic Spectator: An Annual Report. For part 1, see here. For part 2, see here. For part 3, see here.

Introduction

In the last post, we’ve considered some basics of grammatical aspect and the lexical actional potential of verbs. This part of the series continues this exploration. In particular, we will look at some other dynamics that occur when these two factors interact. Again, I would recommend to you reading Thomson’s essay for a fuller account. We will also address some practical issues that arise when it comes to dealing with aspect and Aktionsart in our daily exegetical work. Note that the categories that were introduced in part 3 of this series will be presupposed here. So if you are new to this subject, I would strongly encourage you to read that post first.

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Lexical Semantics and Lexicography

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Part 2 of the series Observations from a Linguistic Spectator: An Annual Report.

For part 1, see here.

A Semiotic Framework

I’m going to cheat right away in this first post in this series that discusses an actual linguistic subject – quite a bit of what I discuss here isn’t that new to me. So it’s not really part of the honest annual report of new insights that I promised. Still, I feel like I have to include these considerations because in my experience this is perhaps the single issue where publications in biblical studies fail most often.

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Observations from a Linguistic Spectator: An Annual Report

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Part 1: Introduction

Why this blog post series?

Beginning this April, I will work as an assistant at the University of Basel at the chair of Prof. Moisés Mayordomo. Already on my second work day, I was going to give a presentation in the research seminar in Zurich – an event which now has of course been cancelled due to the Corona virus situation. Since I had already begun making some mental notes for this presentation, I thought it might be wise to instead make a series of blogposts about the subject that I was going to talk about. Here, I’ll make some introductory remarks and I hope I’ll be able to find the time over the coming weeks for the other instalments.

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The Wright Stuff: “God and the Faithfulness of Paul” Editor Interview

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I recently had the privilege of sitting down (virtually) with the three editors of a large collection of essays by leading biblical scholars and theologians engaging with the highly esteemed and highly controversial N.T. Wright. That volume is God and the Faithfulness of Paul (GFP), edited by Christoph Heilig, J. Thomas Hewitt, and Michael F. Bird. [Read more…]