Francis G.H. Pang, «Aspect, Aktionsart, and Abduction: Future Tense in the New Testament», Vol. 23 (2010) 129-159
This study examines the treatment of the Future tense among the major contributions in the discussion of verbal aspect in the Greek of the New Testament. It provides a brief comparative summary of the major works in the past fifty years, focusing on the distinction between aspect and Aktionsart on the one hand, and the kind of logical reasoning used by each proposal on the other. It shows that the neutrality of the method is best expressed in an abductive approach and points out the need of clarifying the nature and the role of Aktionsart in aspect studies.
148 Francis G. H. Pang
implicature, the usage of a Future verb that expresses certain Aktionsart
which reflects perfective understanding of the verb does not mean that
the tense-form itself grammaticalizes such aspect. Thus the seemingly
definite correlation between certain aspect and Aktionsart, the basis of
many of these models, is coincidental rather than axiomatic. All that
can be said is that there are some instances when a certain verb is used
with other contextual factors that express certain Aktionsart, the verbal
complex in its entirety, not the tense-form per se, will also expresses such
Aktionsart.
Thus, failure to maintain a clear distinction between the function and
the nature of aspect and Aktionsart inevitably leads to a misreading
of the aspect of the Future. However, Campbell is not the only scholar
who tries to determine the semantic feature of the Future by examining
the relationship and interaction between aspect and Aktionsart.
Using different terminologies, Mari Olsen talks about how Aktionsart
contributes to the understanding of the aspect of the Future in her works.
However, her model, which is to some extent also based on Fanning’s
premise, came up with contrasting conclusions even following what is
apparently the same line of argument.
3.2 Non-Aspectual or Aspectual Unmarked
Olsen ties grammatical aspect with Aktionsart but instead of reading
ingressive expression from the Future instances, like Fanning, her analysis
focuses on the lexical telicity104. Recall that Olsen endorses a privative
opposition of lexical aspect (Aktionsart) in her model, i.e. a verb that is
unspecified in lexical aspect may be marked with semantic features but
the opposite is not possible. In another words, the positive member of the
lexical aspect is an uncancelable semantic feature, whereas its opposite
is not part of the semantic representation of lexical aspect105. Thus for
example, the lexical aspect of the verbs that are not marked with [+telic]
may be interpreted as either telic or atelic depending on context106. Under
this line of argument, Olsen argues the Future is an aspectually unmarked
form since it has “the range of interpretations associated with unmarked
members of privative oppositions”107. The grammatical aspect of the
Future may be interpreted as either imperfective or perfective, depending
104
Olsen, Lexical and Grammatical Aspect, 260-3.
105
Olsen, Lexical and Grammatical Aspect, 31-5.
106
The same can be said of for the other two lexical aspectual feature, [+dynamic] and
[+durative]. Olsen, Lexical and Grammatical Aspect, 31.
107
Olsen, Lexical and Grammatical Aspect, 260.