- Aorist
Aorist (from Greek "αοριστός" without horizon, unbounded) is an aspect or, used more specifically, a verb tense in some
Indo-European languages , such asClassical Greek (the term is also used for unrelated concepts in some other languages, such as Turkish [http://www.practicalturkish.com/turkish-verbal-factoids.html] ). In contrast to theimperfective aspect , which refers to an action as continual or repeated, or to theperfect aspect , which calls attention to the consequences generated by an action, the "aorist aspect" has no such implications, but refers to an action "pure and simple". [cite book|title=Learning Greek with Plato|author=Frank Beetham|year=2007|publisher=Bristol Phoenix Press|pages=362]In the
indicative mood , the aorist refers to a past action, in a general way or as a completed event. It may also be used to express a general statement in the present (the "gnomic aorist"). Used this way, it is described as the "aorist tense". In other moods (subjunctive, optative, and imperative), the infinitive, and (largely) the participle, the aorist is purely aspectual. In these forms, it has no temporal meaning, and acts purely as an alternative to the other aspects.The aorist aspect is used, for example, in the
Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:11, which says "Give ("δὸς" "dos", aorist imperative) us "this day" our daily bread"), whereas Luke 11:3 implies a sense of continuation with "Give ("δίδου" "didou", present imperative) us "day by day" our daily bread."In Proto-Indo-European, the aorist may have originated simply as an aspect of syntactic inflection, but later it probably developed into a combination of tense and aspect, a similar syntax being evident in
Sanskrit . Many Indo-European languages, such as Latin, have lost the aorist as a distinct feature.Morphology
In the Indo-European languages Greek and
Sanskrit , the aorist is marked by several morphological devices, but three stand out as most common:ee also
*
*Perfective aspect
*Preterite Notes
References
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External links
* [http://www.bcbsr.com/greek/gtense.html Greek tenses]
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