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Re: What's the aorist tense?

From:Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
Date:Tuesday, June 29, 2004, 6:45
On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 07:02:16 +0100, Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
> > There is still only one present indicative, but two past indicatives: the > imperfective known as the 'imperfect tense' and the perfective known for > historical reasons as the 'aorist tense'.
Hm? Modern Greek does have something I'd call the "perfective", though it's constructed synthetically (using the present indiciative of the auxiliary verb exw (to have) + a form which looks like 3rd person singular aorist subjunctive but could be called an infinitive or a participle). So if you include synthetic tenses, you have e.g.: 8a desw - future 8a denw - future imperfective? denw - present indicative edena - imperfect edesa - aorist exw desei - perfect eixa desei - pluperfect plus the subjunctives na denw (pres.subj.) / na desw (aor.subj.) which indicate aspect rather than tense. Cheers, -- Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>