Aspect in the Gortyn Law Code: The Subjectivity of the Category
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Jesús de la Villa
Abstract
The Law Code of Gortyn presents a large number of legal orders and prescriptions in the infinitive and imperative in both the present and the aorist stems. In this text, we often find two forms of the same verb. Its data is therefore very useful for exploring the content differences between the two aspectual stems. Our analysis shows that, in most cases, the choice of one aspectual stem over the other can be explained according to the following scheme: present stem = the ordered event must continue without any precise end, and aorist stem = the ordered event must be fulfilled until its end. However, in a number of examples, the same verb is used sometimes in the present and sometimes in the aorist in very similar contexts. These contexts are ambiguous, since they present characteristics typically associated with both stems. Our hypothesis is that, in these contexts, the author or authors of the text of the code could choose one stem or another. The final choice, apparently, depended on very subtle contextual or grammatical conditions. This reinforces the vision that grammatical aspect had in Ancient Greek a fundamentally subjective character.
Abstract
The Law Code of Gortyn presents a large number of legal orders and prescriptions in the infinitive and imperative in both the present and the aorist stems. In this text, we often find two forms of the same verb. Its data is therefore very useful for exploring the content differences between the two aspectual stems. Our analysis shows that, in most cases, the choice of one aspectual stem over the other can be explained according to the following scheme: present stem = the ordered event must continue without any precise end, and aorist stem = the ordered event must be fulfilled until its end. However, in a number of examples, the same verb is used sometimes in the present and sometimes in the aorist in very similar contexts. These contexts are ambiguous, since they present characteristics typically associated with both stems. Our hypothesis is that, in these contexts, the author or authors of the text of the code could choose one stem or another. The final choice, apparently, depended on very subtle contextual or grammatical conditions. This reinforces the vision that grammatical aspect had in Ancient Greek a fundamentally subjective character.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of Figures and Charts IX
- List of Tables XI
- Abbreviations
- In Honour of Mark Janse 1
-
Part I: Greek Through the Ages — From Homer to Byzantium
- Hyperbaton and Homeric Colometry: A First Exploration 15
- Aspect in the Gortyn Law Code: The Subjectivity of the Category 41
- Tense, Aspect, Iterativity and Related Textual Criticism: A Case Study Based on Herodotos, Historiai 4.78 65
- The Tragic Aorist: A Well-defined and Homogeneous Group? 101
- Changes in Word Order: Scribal Corrections to the Placement of Clitic Pronouns 127
- Κένταυρος, Κέρβερος and Their Possible Etymological Relatives 139
- Light from Gothic on the Post-Classical Greek Lexicon 161
- The Theory of Semantic Fields and the Greek Lexicon: The Case of ΠΟΝΗΡΟΣ and its Semantic Congeners in the History of the Greek Language 167
- Figs and the City: A Comic Cocktail (Aristophanes, fr. [dub.] 955 Kassel-Austin, PCG) 197
- Musings on an Attic Muse: Three Ancient Responses to a Passage from Xenophon’s Anabasis 215
- ἐρρωμένος μοι διατελοῖς μετὰ τῶν φιλτάτων κύριέ μου ἀσύγκριτε: The Social Semiotics of Formulaic Extravagance in the Ancient Greek Epistolary Frame 237
- Homer in Byzantium: Comment parler des livres que l’on n’a pas lus? 271
- Koineization in Ancient Epirus: Some Additional Insights from Onomastics 301
- The Papyrus of the Curse of Artemisia: Dialect and Interference 333
-
Part II: Greek in Contact — Dialect and Diversity in the Modern Era
- On the So-Called Progressive in Romeyka 353
- The Exploitation of Turkish Dialectal Lexicography: Dialectal Turkish Loanwords in the Historical Dictionary of Cappadocian Dialects 381
- Investigating Derivational Borrowability in the Cappadocian Greek Dialectal Landscape: The Emergence of allo-morphomes 401
- Aivaliot Morphology: Selected Phenomena from Prefixization and Verb Borrowing 429
- Innovation and Retention in Silliot Greek 459
- The Historical Dictionary of Cappadocian Dialects as a Contribution to the Study of Variation and Change 477
- List of Contributors 503
- Index Rerum
- Index Nominum
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of Figures and Charts IX
- List of Tables XI
- Abbreviations
- In Honour of Mark Janse 1
-
Part I: Greek Through the Ages — From Homer to Byzantium
- Hyperbaton and Homeric Colometry: A First Exploration 15
- Aspect in the Gortyn Law Code: The Subjectivity of the Category 41
- Tense, Aspect, Iterativity and Related Textual Criticism: A Case Study Based on Herodotos, Historiai 4.78 65
- The Tragic Aorist: A Well-defined and Homogeneous Group? 101
- Changes in Word Order: Scribal Corrections to the Placement of Clitic Pronouns 127
- Κένταυρος, Κέρβερος and Their Possible Etymological Relatives 139
- Light from Gothic on the Post-Classical Greek Lexicon 161
- The Theory of Semantic Fields and the Greek Lexicon: The Case of ΠΟΝΗΡΟΣ and its Semantic Congeners in the History of the Greek Language 167
- Figs and the City: A Comic Cocktail (Aristophanes, fr. [dub.] 955 Kassel-Austin, PCG) 197
- Musings on an Attic Muse: Three Ancient Responses to a Passage from Xenophon’s Anabasis 215
- ἐρρωμένος μοι διατελοῖς μετὰ τῶν φιλτάτων κύριέ μου ἀσύγκριτε: The Social Semiotics of Formulaic Extravagance in the Ancient Greek Epistolary Frame 237
- Homer in Byzantium: Comment parler des livres que l’on n’a pas lus? 271
- Koineization in Ancient Epirus: Some Additional Insights from Onomastics 301
- The Papyrus of the Curse of Artemisia: Dialect and Interference 333
-
Part II: Greek in Contact — Dialect and Diversity in the Modern Era
- On the So-Called Progressive in Romeyka 353
- The Exploitation of Turkish Dialectal Lexicography: Dialectal Turkish Loanwords in the Historical Dictionary of Cappadocian Dialects 381
- Investigating Derivational Borrowability in the Cappadocian Greek Dialectal Landscape: The Emergence of allo-morphomes 401
- Aivaliot Morphology: Selected Phenomena from Prefixization and Verb Borrowing 429
- Innovation and Retention in Silliot Greek 459
- The Historical Dictionary of Cappadocian Dialects as a Contribution to the Study of Variation and Change 477
- List of Contributors 503
- Index Rerum
- Index Nominum
