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.
The Greek Verbal Network Viewed from a Probabilistic Standpoint 39
in the vast majority of instances (in fact, in all instances but one out of
44), selection of Greek verbal aspect is not statistically significantly affec-
ted by selection of these other verbal semantic features. This therefore
argues, at least in part, against the competing theory that claims that lexis
is fundamental for determining Greek verbal aspect, and, decisively,
against the competing theory that claims that other verbal factors influ-
ence selection of Greek verbal aspect. As a result, the definition and per-
spective on Greek verbal aspect offered by Porter in Verbal Aspect, and elu-
cidated further in his Idioms of the Greek New Testament, is essentially con-
firmed from a distributional statistical standpoint.
Stanley E. PORTER
Matthew Brook O’DONNELL
McMaster Divinity College
1280 Main St. W.
Hamilton, ON
CANADA L8S 4K1
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