Ebook: Advances in the Study of Greek

Verbal aspect in Ancient Greek has been a topic of significant debate in recent scholarship. In this book, Constantine R. Campbell investigates the function of verbal aspect within New Testament Greek narrative. He argues that the primary role of verbal aspect in narrative is to delineate and shape the various 'discourse strands' of which it is constructed, such as mainline, offline, and direct discourse. Campbell accounts for this function in terms of the semantic value of each tense-form. Consequently, in the search for more effective conclusions and explanations, he challenges and reassesses some of the conclusions reached in previous scholarship. One such reassessment involves a boldly innovative approach to the perfect tense-form.;TABLE OF CONTENTS; List of Figures xi; Series Editor Preface xiii; Author's Preface xv; List of Abbreviations xvii; Introduction 1; 1. The problem of verbal aspect 1; 2. Where are we? 2; 3. Discourse analysis and Greek narrative 3; 4. The search for an aspectual model of the Greek verbal system 5; 5. Implications 5; Chapter One: Methodological Issues 7; 1. Introduction 7; 2. Terminology 8; 3. Linguistic assumptions 16; 4. Pragmatics and semantics 24; 5. Determining aspect 28; 6. Limitation of sources 30; 7. Conclusion 33; Chapter Two: The Present Tense-form 35; 1. Introduction 35.