10 David I. Yoon this paper, as the selected passage contains a few imperfect tense-forms; however, the difficulty lies in the criteria for determining whether a text is discourse or narrative, or possibly both. Though a separate section on the imperfect tense-form is lacking in his Idioms, in his earlier and more comprehensive Verbal Aspect, Porter does devote much space for the significance of the imperfect in comparison with the aorist and present tense-forms27. He states that between the imperfect and present, “there is no aspectual difference: both are aspectually imperfective on the basis of their formal paradigm,” but that “a semantic distinction stems from a functional difference,” that the imperfect tense-form conveys remoteness as opposed to the present tense-form28. The imperfect tense-form, then, is less marked than the present tense-form; however, the imperfect, like the present tense-form, conveys imperfective aspect. c) Stative aspect. This is conveyed through the perfect (and pluperfect29) tense-forms and is the most heavily marked as compared to the perfective and imperfective aspects. This is judged on the basis of frequency in the extant literature, stem formation, history of the Greek verbal system, and its aspectual meaning30. “The action is conceived of by the language user as reflecting a given (often complex) state of affairs”31. Again, I turn to Wallace for a traditional Aktionsart definition of the perfect tense-form: “it describes an event that, completed in the past (we are speaking of the perfect indicative here), has results existing in the present time (i.e., in relation to the time of the speaker)”32. After surveying a few grammars, Wallace concludes that it combines the aorist and present tenses, and “speaks of completed action (aorist) with existing results (perfect)”33. However, the stative aspect, again, does not rely on temporal factors, but simply conveys a state or condition of affairs, without reference to its progress (imperfective aspect) or completion (perfective aspect). Usually, the analogy of a parade is provided for understanding the various aspects in relation to each other34. Imagine the various viewpoints 27 E.g., Porter, Verbal Aspect, 198–211. 28 Porter, Verbal Aspect, 207. 29 Just as the imperfect tense-form conveys remoteness in relation to the present tense- form, the pluperfect also conveys remoteness in relation to the present. 30 Porter, Verbal Aspect, 245. 31 Porter, Idioms, 21–22. 32 Wallace, Greek Grammar, 573. 33 Wallace, Greek Grammar, 574. 34 Porter, Verbal Aspect, 91; Porter, Idioms, 24. He adopts this analogy from A.V. Isachenko. Cf. Campbell, Basic of Verbal Aspect, 19, who also refers to this helpful illustration.