Eric R. Naizer, «Discourse Prominence in Matthew 20,1-16: Stanley Porter's Verbal Aspect Theory applied», Vol. 22 (2009) 41-54
While traditionally grammarians have understood the Greek verbal system as grammaticalizing time and/or Aktionsart, there is growing acknowledgment that the Greek verbal system is fundamentally aspectual. There is also increasing recognition that verbal aspect can function to provide the author with the subjective choice to define discourse prominence within any given context. Much of the scholarship done on the subject of verbal aspect with regard to discourse prominence has been done at a theoretical level leaving the majority of the New Testament open for the application of the theory. It is the purpose of this study to apply the results of verbal aspect theory articulated by Stanley E. Porter to the pericope found in Matthew 20,1-16 in order to test the viability of aspect functioning to indicate prominence.
44 Eric R. Naizer
a means by which authors use to indicate planes of discourse to signify
points of emphasis or peaks within a given portion of a text9. J.T. Reed
and R. Reese define prominence according to Porter’s perspective as
“semantic and grammatical elements of discourse that serve to set aside
certain subjects, ideas, or motifs of the text as more or less semantically
and pragmatically significant than others”10.
Based on the notion of verbal opposition, the author’s choice of aspect
should be understood in relation to the alternatives available assuming
that one form is chosen over another. Porter observes that within the
Greek verbal system the perfective aspect (aorist tense) is the least heavily
weighted, and, therefore, “carries the least significant meaning attached
to use of the form”. This is the tense used when there is no need to use
another and is considered to be the “default” tense. The imperfective
aspect (present/imperfect tense) is used rather than the perfective aspect
to indicate a greater semantic significance. The most heavily weighted
aspect is the stative aspect (perfect/pluperfect tense) which when used in
opposition to the perfective aspect and imperfective aspect indicates “the
greatest semantic significance”11.
Porter maintains that there are three main levels of prominence indi-
cated by verbal aspect: background (aorist tense), foreground (present/
imperfect tense) and frontground (perfect/pluperfect tense)12. The perfec-
tive aspect (aorist tense) is used as the “background tense” to establish
the background of a narrative or some supporting material in order to
move the narrative forward13. S. Wallace describes the background as
including “events of lesser importance, subsidiary procedures, secondary
points, descriptions, elaborations, digressions, and minor characters or
things”14. The aorist tense makes up the backbone of the narrative to ca-
Tense Aspect: Between Semantics and Pragmatics (Amsterdam 1982) 201-23. For studies
of the NT see especially K. Callow, Discourse Considerations in Translating the Word of
God (Grand Rapids 1974); S. Levinsohn, Discourse Features of New Testament Greek: A
Coursebook on the Information Structure of New Testament Greek (Dallas 2000) 169-213;
Porter, Verbal Aspect, 92-93; J. T. Reed, A Discourse Analysis of Philippians: Method and
Rhetoric in the Debate Over Literary Integrity (Sheffield 1997) 16-122.
9
Porter, Idioms, 302; Longacre states, “The very idea of discourse as a structured
entity demands that some parts of discourse be more prominent than others.” Longacre,
“Discourse Peak,” 83.
10
J. T. Reed and R. A. Reese, “Verbal Aspect, Discourse Prominence, and the Letter of
Jude,” Fg NT 9 (1996) 186. Italics theirs.
11
Porter, Idioms, 22.
12
Ibid. 23. Also, cf. J. T. Reed, “Identifying theme in the New Testament: Insights from
Discourse Analysis,” in S. Porter and D. A. Carson (eds.), Discourse Analysis and Other
Topics in Biblical Greek, (Sheffield 1995) 75-101. The three levels are identified as “back-
ground”, “theme”, and “focus.”
13
Porter, Idioms, 302.
14
Wallace, “Figure and Ground,” 208.
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