21st Century Classical Greek -- imperfective definition

So we know that ksunegrapse is imperfective because the psi is really phi plus sigma, and the sigma is there to mark the imperfective, while the eta is the augment that belongs with the eventive flavor of aspect.

And the imperfective conceptual is ksuggrapso, with the sigma marker. The double gamma is something called “euphony”. The eta of the eventive separates the nu of ksun from the gamma of grafo, but the conceptual doesn’t have augment. The nu does something called “assimilation” in Hebrew and becomes another gamma.

Now, what is the definition of imperfective, and what is the definition of eventive as distinct from conceptual?

Imperfective is about action, which may be complete but may only be in prospect of being completed. Imperfective addresses action, not the result of the action, as distinct from perfective which is all about results.

Imperfective eventive in particular is about something that happens, possibly more than once. This implies that the result was not permanent, and even that it reversed itself. Imperfective is used for motion in alternating directions.

Thucydides often uses imperfective eventive for things that happen in multiple places, or at multiple times, or to multiple people. Sometimes more than one of these features applies, and the second conjugated verb in this section is an example.

Epolemisan has the imperfective sigma and the eventive augment. Thucydides is writing about wars, and he uses imperfective eventive because there were multiple battles in different places at different times, each with two or more mutually antagonistic parties. Not only were there multiple battles, the war went on, with a couple of breaks, for nearly 30 years. With all the killing, and the terrible plague, as well as famines, you can see that the armies had to field young people at the end who might not have been born at the start. And the battles occurred all over the peninsula, in the territory of the various city-states. That’s an extreme example of multiple places, times, and people covered by an imperfective eventive verb.

So Thucydides didn’t just say “I wrote…” He said “At various times, I wrote…” In fact, he didn’t even say that, because ksungraffo is an idiom for writing things down. Thucydides didn’t make this stuff up. He took what was happening and put it into words. He talks later about interviewing people to contribute to the work, and explains that he didn’t quote any of them directly because the info he got was inexact or mutually contradictory. He did other research and used what seemed most likely to be true; that’s what he wrote down.

And he did it on the fly. Something would happen, and Thucydides would take note of it before he could forget about it, then later he would review things and add information. There’s a note coming up which shows that he (re)wrote his introduction after the terrible plague, which he survived although the famous statesman Pericles died.

Thucydides is going to use imperfective eventive a lot, not just because the war lasted a long time or happened all over, but also because it’s the verb for simple action without implying a result. (Yes, people acted in order to achieve a result; I’ll discuss that when I get to voice.) Less frequently, he uses it because he has to talk about repetition of a reversed action. Memorize that definition, and you’ll understand the nuances of the lion’s share of the verbs in Peloponnesian War.