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
34
7. ATTITUDE subsystem (NON-ASSERTION) (13) and ASPECT2 (3)
Realization Statements:
+projective +imperfective >> Present Subjunctive, Optative
+directive +imperfective >> Present Imperative
+projective +stative >> Perfect Subjunctive, Optative
+directive +stative >> Perfect Imperative
+imperfective +stative
+projective .................. 395 0.33 10 0.71 405 0.33
+directive .................... 820 0.67 4 0.29 824 0.67
+projective +directive
+imperfective .............. 395 0.98 820 0.97 1215 0.99
+stative ....................... 10 0.02 4 0.03 14 0.01
The seventh set of examples concerns the relation of the ATTITUDE
sub-system (NON-ASSERTION) (13) and ASPECT2 system. This set of
systemic choices concerns the options +projective/+directive and
+imperfective/+stative (systems 13 and 3). Choice of either +projec-
tive or +directive results in a skewed distribution with +imperfective
over +stative (0.98/0.02 and 0.97/0.03, respectively). Choice of
+imperfective results in an equiprobable distribution (0.33/0.67),
within the same overall distributional category, although at opposite
ends of the range, as +projective/+directive in system 13. The choice of
+stative, however, results in a slightly skewed distribution, with +pro-
jective over +directive (0.71/0.29). Thus, it would appear that choice
of verbal aspect in the ASPECT2 system does affect the choice of +pro-
jective/+directive, at least where the perfect form is concerned. This is
consistent with what has already been noted in Verbal Aspect regarding
the relative infrequency of the perfect imperative 100. However, the very
small number of instances may mitigate the validity of these statistics.
Nevertheless, choice in the ASPECT2 system is unaffected by choice in
the ATTITUDE subsystem.
100
Porter, Verbal Aspect, p. 362. We take the instances of i[ste in Eph. 5.5 and Jas 1.19
as indicatives, not imperatives. See S.E. Porter, «i[ste ginwvskonte" in Ephesians 5,5:
Does Chiasm Solve a Problem?», ZNW 81 (1990), pp. 270-76.
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