 | Infinitive aorist |
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Hello! I'm coming back with another issue. I really don't understand what exactly "infinitive aorist" does mean and when we use it. I.e. , for the verb "πάω" , the grammar says that the infinitive aorist is "πάει". Can we use it as a single word in a sentence , so not like the compound tenses like "έχω πάει" or "είχα πάει" ? |
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The term "infinitive aorist" is a little unfortunate, and perhaps even misleading, because strictly speaking Modern Greek no longer has infinitives like the ancient language did nor like modern Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages still do. While the term "infinitive aorist" could be considered somewhat technically accurate in that an infinitive is "infinite" in tense, that is, it does not express any specific time of the action, the "infinitive aorist" in the Modern language actually expresses verbal aspect, that is, the distinction between instantaneous or one-time actions versus continuing or habitual actions. Perhaps a more descriptive term for the "infinitive aorist" is the "tenseless perfective", in that this form expresses perfective (or in LGO's terminology, "non-continuous") verbal aspect. Because of the lack of a true infinitive in the Modern language, modern grammars use various other terms for this form. One such term is the "dependent*", because it cannot be used alone -- as an unchanging form it is preceded by a conjugated form of έχω to construct the perfect tenses (έχει πάει - he/she has gone, έχουν πάει - they have gone; είχε πάει - he/she had gone, είχαν πάει - they had gone; θα έχει πάει - he/she will have gone, θα έχουν πάει - they will have gone), while as a conjugated form it is preceded by θα for future tense (θα πάει - he/she will go, θα πάνε - they will go), by ας or να to form the subjunctive mood (να πάει - that he/she go, να πάνε - that they go; ας πάει - he/she should go, ας πάνε - they should go), or by a conjunction (πριν πάει - before he/she goes, πριν πάνε - before they go), all these usages expressing a perfective (non-continuous) aspect. For more about this issue of verbal aspect in Modern Greek, see "FYI: verbal aspect in Modern Greek" in Discussion Forum 59. Hope this helps, Greg Brush *from "Greek: An Essential Grammar of the Modern Language" by Holton, Mackridge, Philippaki-Warburton |
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It helps very much , thank you Greg. Actually I've encountered the word "πάει" in this text: |
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πάει και τέλειωσε (lit. "it goes and it ended") is an expression which means "over and done", or as the British say "done and dusted". The πάει in this expression is not the "infinitive aorist" πάει; rather, it is the standard colloquial alternate to imperfective/continuous πηγαίνει and will be formally introduced in Lesson 36: Έτσι όπως τα 'κανες ψάχνεις για μιαν άκρη Thus, as you use to do, you are searching for a highpoint όλα τα ωραία τελειώνουν μ' ένα δάκρυ, All the beautiful things end with a tear, η αγάπη, σ' το 'λεγα, θέλει υποχωρήσεις love, I used to tell it to you, wants retreats πάει και τελείωσε, μην ψάχνεις εξηγήσεις. It's done and ended, don't keep searching for explanations. Regards, Greg Brush |
