Stanley E. Porter - Matthew Brook O’Donnell, «The Greek Verbal Network Viewed from a Probabilistic Standpoint: An Exercise in Hallidayan Linguistics» filologia-neotestamentaria, Vol. 14 (2001) 3-41 page 30

Vol 14 (2001)

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.

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Stanley E. Porter and Matthew Brook Oâ€™Donnell 30 for aorist forms as opposed to non-aorist forms. Another variation is that, in the distribution of forms grammaticalizing the feature â€“finite, there is an equiprobable distribution (0.41/0.59) that favours the forms that grammaticalize â€“perfective semantic features. Choice of Â±perfective has distributions that further support these tendencies. Choice of â€“per- fective results in an equiprobable distribution for Â±finite (0.60/0.40), similar to that of system 2. However, choice of +perfective produces a dis- tribution of Â±finite at 0.70/0.30, a figure right on the border between equiprobable and skewed distribution, rather than the clearly equiproba- ble distribution of system 7. The tendency is to see a relation here between +perfective and +finite. This would be somewhat confirmatory of the view of the aorist indicative as the so-called Â«defaultÂ» tense-form in the indicative mood 94, as well as in the non-indicative moods 95. This is con- sistent with analysis of the Greek verbal network arrived at through non- distributional means. Whatever one concludes regarding these slight variations in distribution, however, the ASPECT1 system is unaffected by the FINITENESS system. 3. FINITENESS (7) and ASPECT2 (3) Realization Statements: +finite +imperfective >> Present & Imperfect Indicative, Present Subjunctive, Imperative & Optative â€“finite +imperfective >> Present Participle & Infinitive +finite +stative >> Perfect & Pluperfect Indicative, Perfect Subjunctive, Imperative & Optative â€“finite +stative >> Perfect Participle & Infinitive +imperfective +stative +finite ........................ 6436 0.60 936 0.56 7372 0.60 â€“finite ........................ 4289 0.40 722 0.44 5011 0.40 +finite â€“finite +imperfective ............. 6436 0.87 4289 0.86 10725 0.87 +stative ...................... 936 0.13 722 0.14 1658 0.13 94 See Porter, Verbal Aspect, pp. 102-107; idem, Idioms of the Greek New Testament, pp. 21-24, 50-52. 95 See Porter, Verbal Aspect, pp. 163-77; idem, Idioms of the Greek New Testament, pp. 52-61.