This study is an attempt to examine a few episodes from the diachronic development of Modern Greek synthetic and analytic perfect from the standpoint of functional grammar. Perfect seems to be used as a stylistic device, a means of archaization. The data of medieval and contemporary modern Greek are considered in the context of the of the so-called Greek language issue - the conscious archaization of the language standard of Greek, attested from the 1st c. AD and correlating with the situation of diglossia.