Stanley E. Porter - Matthew Brook O’Donnell, «The Greek Verbal Network Viewed from a Probabilistic
Standpoint: An Exercise in Hallidayan Linguistics», Vol. 14 (2001) 3-41
This study explores numerical or distributional
markedness in the verbal network of the Greek of the New Testament. It
extends the systemic analysis of Porter (Verbal Aspect in the Greek of
the New Testament, 1989), making use of the Hallidayan concept of
probabilistic grammar, which posits a typology of systems where features
are either "equiprobable".both features are equally distributed
(0.5/0.5).or "skewed".one feature is marked by its low frequency of
occurrence (0.9/0.1). The results confirm that the verbal aspect system of
the Greek of the New Testament is essentially independent of other verbal
systems, such as voice and mood.
Stanley E. Porter and Matthew Brook O’Donnell
28
provided. These statistics sometimes differ from those of the individual
systems in the Greek verbal network as a whole, since other systems that
affect the statistics have been eliminated. As mentioned above, the results
are essentially confirmatory that choice of verbal aspect is not affected by
competing grammatical choices; however, there are several other interes-
ting statistical results that come to the fore, virtually all of them in con-
firmation of previous research found in Porter’s Verbal Aspect. Each table
is presented with the two systems that are being tested. The system at the
top is the one seen to influence the system at the side. For each set, each
system is tested in relation to the other, to determine whether the proba-
bilistic distribution for a given system is or is not affected by the other
system. We determine that a system is not affected if the distribution
still falls within its distributional type, that is, as either equiprobable or
skewed, even if the exact figures vary. A system is affected if its distribution
changes types. Those that fall on the border of the two types are also
noted.
1. FINITENESS (7) and ASPECTUALITY (1)
Realization Statements:
+finite +expectational >> Future «Indicative»
–finite +expectational >> Future Participle & Infinitive
+finite +aspectual >> Non-Future Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative & Optative
–finite +aspectual >> Non-Future Participle & Infinitive
+expectational +aspectual
+finite ........................ 1421 0.99 15450 0.64 16871 0.66
–finite ........................ 13 0.01 8537 0.36 8550 0.34
+finite –finite
+expectational ............ 1421 0.08 13 0.01 1434 0.06
+aspectual .................. 15450 0.92 8537 0.99 23987 0.94
The first set of examples concerns the relation of the FINITENESS
system and the ASPECTUALITY system. This set of systemic choices con-
cerns the options of ±finite and +expectational/+aspectual (systems 7 and
1). Choice of ±finite does not affect the skewed distribution of +expecta-
tional/+aspectual (0.08/0.92 and 0.01/0.99, respectively), in conformity
with the distribution for this system on its own (system 1). Choice of
+aspectual results in an equiprobable distribution regarding ±finite
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