Aspect in Ancient Greek - Nijmegen Centre for Semantics

148 Chapter 6. The temporal structure of discourseFigure 6.2.t 1 = t TT1 = t 2 = t TT2τ(e 1 )τ(e 2 )Figure 6.2: Graphical representation of (184), overlapThese default rules for the specification of the topic time also explain theso-called immediative use of imperfective aspect, the interpretation that theeventuality described with imperfective aspect follows right after a previouslymentioned eventuality with aoristic aspect, as in (185) (cf. (164)):(185) κα µα φ θ έ γ ξ α ν τ ο ... πάντε̋ κα πάντε̋ δ θ ε ο ν.“At the same time they all set up-aor a war-cry ... and next allwere running-imp.” X. An. 1.8.18Since the first clause has aoristic aspect, it introduces not only an eventualityof uttering a sound (e 1 in Figure 6.3) included in the topic time t TT1 , but alsoa time t TT2 which immediately follows this eventuality and acts as topic timefor the next clause. Since the second clause has imperfective aspect, the timeof the running eventuality τ(e 2 ) described by this clause properly includes thetopic time t TT2 . In many instances of the combination aorist-imperfective theimperfective eventuality will actually include the aorist eventuality as well, asfor example in (163), but this is not necessary. The rules, however, excludethe possibility that there is a temporal gap between the two eventualities. Asa consequence, if world knowledge tells us that the eventualities described donot overlap, as in (185), we have to interpret the imperfective eventuality astaking place right after the aorist one. This yields the ‘immediative’ effect.Landeweerd (1998:177–187) has made the same observation for the imparfaitin French. With the combination passé simple-imparfait, the describedeventualities often overlap, as in (186) (= (41)):(186) Pierre e n t r a. Marie t é l é p h o n a i t.Pierre enter.pst.PFV.3sg Marie phone.pst.IPFV.3sg“Pierre entered. Marie was phoning.”