Stephen H. Levinsohn, «Aspect and Prominence in the Synoptic Accounts of Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem» filologia-neotestamentaria, Vol. 23 (2010) 161-174 page 174

Vol 23 (2010)

Stephen H. Levinsohn, «Aspect and Prominence in the Synoptic Accounts of Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem», Vol. 23 (2010) 161-174

Porter’s analysis of the prominence conveyed by the aorist, imperfect and present is contrasted with Longacre’s claims about the same tenseforms. Both are wrong in equating respectively “foreground” (Porter) and “background” (Longacre) with the imperfect. Relevance Theory claims that non-default forms may result in a variety of cognitive effects. This explains why imperfectives correlate with background, yet sometimes have foregrounding effects. Additional non-default forms and structures can also be accommodated, such as inchoative aorist "erxanto" and the combination of aorist "egeneto" and a temporal expression. Finally, a non-default form or structure may give prominence not to the event concerned, but to the following event(s).

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174 Stephen H. Levinsohn Nor has it considered the prominence of the different tense-forms in non- narrative, though it is to be expected that the same distinctions between the “meaning” of the tense-form and the “overtones” associated with it, and between occasions when the tense-form is or is not the most relevant way of conveying the information, will be equally significant. Nor has it applied the same principles to other areas, such as mood, even though they would be equally applicable49. Such applications must await future articles! Stephen H. LEVINSOHN c/o Wycliffe Centre High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP14 3XL UNITED KINGDOM sh-travel_levinsohn@sil.org 49 For discussion of the use of a subjunctive, instead of an imperative, to background the exhortations of 1 Cor 16.11 and 1 Tim 5.1a, see S.H. Levinsohn, Self-Instruction Materi- als on Non-Narrative Discourse Analysis (online at http://www.sil.org/~levinsohns 2010) §7.2.1.