La description des temps du verbe chez trois grammairiens grecs (Apollonius, Stéphanos, Planude)

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Starting from the Aristotelian definition of the verb as a word «which indicates time (khronos) additionally», the Greek grammarians attempted to give an accurate account of the tenses (khronoï) which constituted their verbal system. In this task they relied on analyses of Stoic origin which provided them with a pair of aspectual categories, viz. extension (paratasis) and completion (teleiōsis). Though perfectly relevant to their object, such categories proved troublesome, in so far as the aspectual pair cannot he easily disentangled from the temporal pair present-past to which it appears to he morphologically and semantically related. This paper deals with three successive stages in the treatment of aspectual categories in Greek grammatical tradition: with Apollonius Dyscolus, aspect appears as a marginal suhstitute of time; with Stephanos, it's altogether disposed of; with Planude, the extensive aspect, definitely «abstracted» from the present, can he translated into the past.