Stanley E. Porter - Matthew Brook O’Donnell, «The Greek Verbal Network Viewed from a Probabilistic
Standpoint: An Exercise in Hallidayan Linguistics», Vol. 14 (2001) 3-41
This study explores numerical or distributional
markedness in the verbal network of the Greek of the New Testament. It
extends the systemic analysis of Porter (Verbal Aspect in the Greek of
the New Testament, 1989), making use of the Hallidayan concept of
probabilistic grammar, which posits a typology of systems where features
are either "equiprobable".both features are equally distributed
(0.5/0.5).or "skewed".one feature is marked by its low frequency of
occurrence (0.9/0.1). The results confirm that the verbal aspect system of
the Greek of the New Testament is essentially independent of other verbal
systems, such as voice and mood.
40
Appendix A. System Network for Greek of the New Testament
+ expectational 0.06•*
ASPECTUALITY
+ perfective 0.48
1S ASPECT + imperfective 0.87
1 ASPECT 2
2E
+ aspectual 0.94 { 3S
– perfective 0.52 { + stative 0.13•
– remote 0.90
4S
} REMOTENESS
+ remote 0.10
+ active 0.72
CASUALITY
process
+ passive 0.64
5ES – contingent 0.97
+ assertive 0.80
– active 0.28 6S 13 S
+ projective 0.54
12 S
} ATTITUDE
+ ergative 0.36 + contingent 0.03*
13 E
– assertive 0.20
+ directive 0.46
– included 0.65
PARTICIPATION
{ – direct 0.55
10 E
+ included 0.35 11 E
+ direct 0.45
+ singular 0.66
+ finite 0.66 { NUMBER
9E
FINITENESS
7ES – singular 0.34
{ + factively presuppositional 0.75
– finite 0.34 8S
– factively presuppositional 0.36
1 Systems are numbered simply for reference use within the article.
2 Letters E and S by each system indicate the authors’ predictions as to whether the system would exhibit skewed or equiprobable distribution.
3 Numbers by each term in a system indicate the probability of selection, based on distribution statistics for the New Testament. Distributions grea-
Stanley E. Porter and Matthew Brook O’Donnell
ter than 0.7/0.3 are considered skewed, and any ratio less than that is considered to be equiprobable.
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