Exploring Aktionsart in Corpora: A Case Study of Koine Greek Erchomai and Eiserchomai

Presented here is an analysis of the effect of the Koine Greek preverb eis- on the lexical aspect of the Koine verb erchomai 'go/come'. To determine the effect of eis-, I demonstrate the lexical aspect of the simplex erchomai and its prefixed form eis-erchomai by annotating all instances of both verbs in the Greek New Testament. Methodology for determining the lexical aspect of the two verbs is adapted from methodology used for languages in which native speaker intuitions are accessible. Applying some of these tests to the corpora, I conclude that erchomai is an activity verb and eiserchomai is a telic verb. This result confirms Buist Fanning's (1990) classification of the same verbs, though he used different methodology to come to this conclusion. Additional ways of developing aktionsart tests for corpora are suggested.