| The present state of affairs in New Testament Greek pedagogy and lexicography of the verb is in need of a reevaluation. Lexicographically, the indicative has only manifested as a relatively recent development as a standardized lemma entry. Pedagogically, the indicative continues to serve as the basic verb. Because the indicative is being used, the entire system is based upon the presumed viability of the indicative to function as a lemma entry or explain other forms in its morpho-semantic features such as aspect or voice and anticipate morphological variation.;The present thesis begins by analyzing the history of the verb from the ancient philosophers and grammarians to the present. This evaluation begins by evaluating informal lemma entry as it was practiced by various Greek-speaking authors, demonstrating that the infinitive, not the indicative, served as a conceptually more basic verb for entry as a lexical item. The evaluation then turns to the practice of formal lexicography in and after the age of the printing press in order to demonstrate that this age was marked by a rapid and persistent standardization of the indicative, and principal parts, as the paradigm of lemma entry. The historical evaluation then turns to grammatical treatments of the verb from Plato through the 20th century in order to trace the reasons for initial assessments of the indicative as the basic verb, and how these differ from Post-Byzantine purposes.;The thesis presented demonstrates that, despite that the infinitive was understood as a basic verb per se, and because the indicative simultaneously served to describe one of the basic elements of a lambdaogammaosigma, the indicative emerged as the basic verb in and after Post-Byzantine literature. Because of this historical development, and because of the current state of affairs in New Testament Greek studies of the verb, this provides the impetus to ask if a paradigm change is warranted in evaluating the basic verb and its structure through the indicative mood. The infinitive, it is argued herein, serves as a more efficacious verbal form from which to describe the Greek verb as a system both morphologically and semantically, and from which one may describe the verb as a lexical item. |
