Re: Speak, Mnemosyne

Eugene Oh wrote:
[snip]
> 2007/11/17, R A Brown <ray@...>:
>
>>OK - If we stick with _legein_ (which has a suppletive aorist), the most
>>common of the verbs 'to speak', we have (using _ee_ for long 'e'):
>>λέγε, Μνημοσύνη (lége, Mneemosýnee) - imperfective
>>εἶπε, Μνημοσύνη (eîpe, Mneemosýnee) - perfective
>>
>>I'd guess perfective is more likely.
>>
>>P.S. I do give you credit for trying.
>>
>>--
>>Ray
>
>
> Do the "imperfective" and "perfective" imperatives here mean literally
> "speak and continue speaking"
The imperfective is really a superordinate category and includes
aspectual distinction habitual, progressive & iterative. So it could
imply 'continue speaking' or it could be 'speak now and speak this again
& again' etc.

vs. "speak, but just once"?

The word 'aorist' literally means "unbounded" and this seems to me to
correspond very well with Trask's definitive of 'perfective': "A
superordinate aspectual category involving a lack of explicit reference
to the internal temporal consistency of the situation."

So it would be the imperative if your concern was to get Mnemosyne
speaking now without bothering to concern yourself whether you want her
to keep on speaking or speak again on other occasions, etc.

>If so, I
> believe imperfective might possibly be what Nabokov -- not Putin, my
> bad (whoops) -- intended, as the book is a memoir. (Is a memoirs? Is
> memoirs? Is a collection of memoirs?)
Yes, I agree, the imperfective would seem more appropriate.

--
Ray
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praeter necessitudinem.

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