Aspect in Ancient Greek - Nijmegen Centre for Semantics

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122 Chapter 5. Aspect and performativity: the tragic aoristPhr.τν µν ψυχν κ α τ ώ µ ο σ ,tēn emēn psuchēn katōmos’the.acc my.acc soul.acc swear.PST.AOR.1sgνhēnthat.rel.accνanprtεορκοµeuorkoim’swear.truly.ipfv.opt.1sgγώ.egōI.nomOr. “Swear you are not saying this to humour me, or I will kill you.”Phr.“I swear by my life, an oath I would keep!” E. Or. 1516-7In both (145) and (146) a past tense form (νεσα ēinesa and κατώµοσαkatōmosa, respectively) is translated in English with a present tense (approve,swear).The characterisation of the tragic aorist given above immediately pointsout the requirements of an adequate analysis. An analysis of this phenomenonshould explain (i) that a past tense form is interpreted as describing a presenteventuality, (ii) that aoristic aspect is used, (iii) that it is restricted to theabove-mentioned class of verbs and (iv) that it is restricted to the first person.5.2 Previous approachesTraditional approaches to this use of the aorist can roughly be divided in twogroups: one that takes the (past) tense feature of the verb form as the startingpoint, and the other that gives primacy to the (aoristic) aspect feature.Kühner and Gerth (1898) are the most elaborate representatives of thefirst group. They claim that all occurrences of the tragic aorist have in common‘that a statement relating to the present is expressed as if it had alreadyhappened or begun’ (Kühner and Gerth 1898:163: “dass ein auf die Gegenwartbezüglicher Ausspruch als ein bereits geschehener oder eingetretener ausgedrücktwird”). This could be true for verbs of judgement and emotion.(145), for instance, could simply be an example of the ingressive interpretationof the aorist: the beginning of the approval is then situated in the pastof Iphigeneia’s utterance time. It is, however, implausible that in (146), forexample, the swearing started in the past.For this reason, Moorhouse (1982) proposes to neglect the past tense featureof the verb form and to understand the use from its aoristic aspect feature,which makes him a representative of the second group. He claims that thetragic aorist (Moorhouse 1982:195)may best be explained as arising from the punctual aspect, andas bringing to the fore the instantaneous nature of the occurrence:hence it is suitable for a sudden feeling, or act of comprehension,especially as expressed in quick repartee. The substitution of a
5.2 Previous approaches 123present tense (with its durative emphasis) in such cases would beinappropriate aspectually. So far as the time of the occurrrence isconcerned, it should be taken as contemporary; an attempt to referall examples to the past, even the most immediate, cannot succeed.Moorhouse seems to relate the phenomenon of the tragic aorist to the lackof a form for aoristic aspect and present tense in Ancient Greek (see section1.2.2). He seems to suggest that in some cases this very form would be themost appropriate form, but that in its absence Greek may choose the formthat is appropriate aspectually, although not with respect to time. I will workout this suggestion in the account I propose.The two traditional approaches, the temporal and the aspectual, share twoproblems: they fail to account for the facts that the tragic aorist occurs onlywith a restricted class of verbs and only with the first person (requirements(iii) and (iv) above).Lloyd (1999) proposes an alternative account that does not suffer from thesetwo problems. He claims that sentences with a tragic aorist can invariably beanalysed as performatives. The notion of performativity originates from Austin(1962) to distinguish sentences like (147) from sentences like (148):(147) a. I apologize for my behaviour.b. I swear I am not guilty.c. I name this ship the Queen Elisabeth.(148) a. I am blond.b. He apologized for his behaviour.c. I swore I was not guilty.According to Austin, the peculiar thing about the sentences in (147) is thatthey are not used to say things (as are the sentences in (148)), but rather toactively do things: they do not describe the world, but change it. He callssuch sentences performative sentences and the ones in (148) constative. Theparadigm cases of performative sentences have the following properties: theycontain a performative verb (for example, apologize, swear, name, sentence,bet, but not, for example, be), can collocate with hereby (I hereby apologize),and are in the first person indicative simple present tense. With respect tothe last property, note that changing the person or tense, as in (148b) and(148c), immediately makes the sentences descriptive (constative) rather thanperformative.Lloyd’s proposal does not suffer from the problems of the more traditionalapproaches. On the contrary, an analysis of sentences with the tragic aoristas performatives elegantly accounts for the fact that we find this use of theaorist only in the first person and only with this restricted class of verbs. 1 The1 An interpretation of the tragic aorist in terms of performativity carries with it that
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Aspect in Ancient GreekA semantic a
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viNick Asher, David Beaver, the lat
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Contentsix8 Conclusions and discuss
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2 Chapter 1. Introductiongroundbrea
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4 Chapter 1. Introduction(4) µετ
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6 Chapter 1. Introductionimperfecti
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1.3 Organisation of the thesis 9In
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Chapter 2The interpretations of aor
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2.3 Additional interpretations of t
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2.5 The challenge 21scriptions of h
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24 Chapter 3. Aspect in formal sema
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3.2 The perfective-imperfective dis
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3.3 Aspectual coercion 673.3.1 Aspe
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3.3 Aspectual coercion 69bials ((88
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172 Chapter 8. Conclusions and disc
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178 Appendix A: The language of Com
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192 Appendix B: Examples spelled ou
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206 Appendix C: List of abbreviatio
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208 Appendix C: List of abbreviatio
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210 References(Eds.), Cross-linguis
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212 ReferencesGrice, P. (1975). Log
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214 ReferencesLemmon, E. J. (1962).
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216 Referencesvan der Sandt, R. (19
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218 References
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220 Samenvatting (Summary in Dutch)
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222 Samenvatting (Summary in Dutch)
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Aspect in Ancient Greek - Nijmegen Centre for Semantics

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