Die aoristos en imperfektum in die Handelinge van die Apostels

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Those who follow the research of the last century concerning verbal aspect, will realizethe importance of this topic for the understanding of the input of the author / speaker inthe written or spoken word, because verbal aspect gives the specific view of the author /speaker on an action. However, the input of the author is not unqualified, but takes placewithin certain grammatical and contextual parameters. Within these parameters theauthor has the freedom to give actions which occur within the written or spoken word, aspecific colour.As a result of short definitions of the aspect of the different Greek tenses, I was able toidentify six different aspectual uses for both the aorist and the imperfect which agreedwith the chosen definitions. The Acts of the Apostles was used to test the tenability of thedefinitions and the aspectual uses. Only with extensive analysis can the theory beconfirmed. Apart from the fact that Acts is an extensive book, it has the additionaladvantage that the writer regularly alternates between different genres (narrative andspeech). In this way the analysis of the theory can be concentrated further byinvestigating whether aspectual changes occur between the different genres.Analysis of the proposed theory demonstrated firstly that the author does not use theGreek tenses haphazardly, but that he consciously makes use of the aorist and imperfectindicative. The aorist is used especially to represent events or acts in totality and ascompleted; the imperfect is used to represent events or acts in progress and as processes.The analysis also confirmed that the author applies the aorist and the imperfect indifferent ways. The identified aspectual uses of both these tenses could be recognizedthroughout the whole book. Although the author probably did not work with definitionsand aspectual uses, he was clearly aware of verbal aspect and the different ways in whichan action can be portrayed. The analysis finally demonstrated that a change in genre(from narrative to speech or the other way round) often also effects a change in verbalaspect. In this way the author portrays his specific view on actions within their context.The most frequent aspectual use of the aorist, is the aorist used to portray acts ascompleted actions in their totality (in both narratives and speeches) and the aorist toportray the key moments of the story (largely in narratives). The most frequent aspectualuse of the imperfect, is the imperfect to show actions in progress (often in narratives) andthe imperfect to sketch the background (largely in narratives). From the above we candraw the conclusion that the author of Acts uses the aorist and imperfect aspectually,while also considering the alternation between genres.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University