Lesson_010_Attic_Greek_Grammar Flashcards
In Attic Greek, the present tense is built on the present stem, found in the verb’s first principal part; the future tense is built on the future stem, found in the verb’s second principal part. Present and future are two of Greek’s four primary (or principal) tenses.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #134
In Attic Greek, the imperfect tense of the indicative mood shows an action that was occurring at some time in the past. As its name suggests, the imperfect tense has imperfective aspect; i.e., the action is perceived as a process that continued or was repeated over time. In English this idea is most clearly expressed by was/were and -ing (e.g., “we were studying for years”), but it may also be represented by English’s simple past tense (“we studied for years”). Sometimes the context show that the verb would be better translated as, e.g., “We were trying to study,” “We were starting to study,” or “We used to study.” While the present and future tenses may have either imperfective or aoristic aspect, the imperfect tense always has imperfective aspect.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #135
In Attic Greek, Like the present tense, the imperfect tense is built on the present stem. Thus the first principal part supplies the stem for both the present tense and the imperfect tense. Unlike the present tense, the imperfect tense has an augment (either syllabi or temporal) and secondary endings.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #136
In Attic Greek, An augment is a prefix that increases (“augments”) the length of the word; it signals that the verb is in a secondary tense. If the present stem begins with a consonant, an epsilon with smooth breathing is prefixed to it. (e.g., παιδευ- becomes ἐπαιδευ-). This is called a syllabic augment because it adds another syllable to the word. When a verb begins with ῥ, a second rho is always inserted after the syllabic augment (e.g., ῥιπτ- becomes ἐρριπτ-). If the present stem begins with a vowel or a diphthong, a different sort of augment is used: the vowel or diphthong at the start of the stem is lengthened. This is called a temporal augment because it increases the time it takes to pronounce the first syllable.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #137
In Attic Greek, in compound verbs the augment usually comes between the prefix and the stem. The last letter of the prefix, if it is a vowel, generally drops out; e.g., the imperfect of ἀπολείπω is ὰπέλειπον.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #138
The ancient Greeks were very conscious of parallelism in their sentences. Words that “correlate” parallel words or clauses by drying a connection between them are called correlatives, such as καὶ…και (“both…and”).
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #139
In Attic Greek, among the most popular correlatives in Greek are μὲν…δέ. Both are postpositives, i.e., they prefer not to be the first word in their clause. Instead they like to come right after the first word. By itself μέν is a particle (a word whose primary function is to add a certain nuance to the sentence) meaning “indeed” or “certainly.” By itself δέ is a conjunction meaning “and” or ‘but” (weaker than ἀλλά). It is frequently found after the first word of sentence, where it helps to smooth the transition from the preceding sentence.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #140
In Attic Greek, When used as correlatives, μέν and δε point out the parallelism of two ideas: “on the one hand…on the other hand.” The presence of μέν in a sentence should alter the reader to the possibility that the speaker may already have in mind a balance or a contrast between this first thought and a second one, which will have δέ with it. You may decide to leave μέν untranslated and to translate δέ simply as “and” or “but” since an English sentence with “on the other hand…on the other hand” lacks the elegance of a Greek sentence with μὲν…δέ.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #141
In Attic Greek, In correlated clauses the words that are parallel tend to be put first so that they can be emphasized by the μέν and δέ following them; e.g., θύω μὲν τοῖς θεοῖς, φεύγω δὲ τοὺς κινδύνους (“I sacrifice [on the one hand] to the gods, and I escape [on the other hand] the dangers”). If the second clause begins with οὐ ορ μή, make δέ the third word in that clause; e.g., write oὐ φεύγω δέ, not οὐ δὲ φεύγω. Otherwise οὐ δέ and μὴ δέ could be confused with οὐδέ and μηδέ.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #142
In Attic Greek, When determining whether or not a word is in the attributive position, you should disregard the presence of μέν or δε. In the phrase ὁ μὲν ἄξιος μαθητής, for example, ἄξιος is still considered to come immediately after the article and to occupy the attributive position, even though μέν has insinuated itself between the article and the adjective.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #143
In Attic Greek, Definite articles may be combined with μέν and δέ to mean “this one(he, she, it)…that one (he, she, it),” “the one…the other,” or “some…others,” No noun or adjective is needed: the form of the article suffices to show the gender, number, and case, while the correlatives convey the idea of balance or contrast. Examples: (1) ὁ μὲν ᾶιδεύει, ἡ δὲ γράφει. “He is teaching, she is writing.” (2) ἡ μὲν ἐπαίδευεν, ἡ δ᾽ ἔγραφεν. “One woman taught; the other wrote.” (3) οἱ μὲν παιδεύσουσιν, οἱ δ᾽οὔ. “Some will teach; others will not [teach].” It is common to leave out the verb in the second part of a μὲν…δέ construction if it would have been a duplicate of the verb in the first part. The third example above illustrates this practice; remember that οὔ receives an accent when it ends a sentence.
Attic Greek Grammar Rule #144
