Perfective Aspect

Abstract

Abstract This chapter treats the use of εἰμί with the aorist participle (as in λυπηθεὶς ἔσῃ ‘you will be pained’) in Classical Greek. This constitutes a problem area: while some scholars argue that there is no continuity with the use of the construction in Post-Classical Greek, others believe we are essentially dealing with the same construction (in other words, a perfect periphrasis). In this chapter, it is argued that the construction is best considered an innovative periphrasis, following the establishment of εἰμί with the perfect and the present participle as periphrastic constructions. Its uses are quite complex, and approach both the functional domains of perfective and perfect aspect. From a more general point of view, it is argued that the development of this construction fits within the development of transitivization, which was also observed for εἰμί with the perfect and the present participle: not only the constructions themselves, but also periphrasis more generally acquires an increasingly transitive profile.