Subjunctive as an implicit negative

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Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Subjunctive as an implicit negative

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Have any knowledgeable people categorised the subjunctive as a form of a negative?

ἄγωμεν = νῦν οὐκ ἄγομεν καὶ θέλω ἄγειν ἡμᾶς

Πᾶς γὰρ ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου σωθήσεται. = νῦν οὐκ ἐπικαλεῖται τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
cwconrad
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Re: Subjunctive as an implicit negative

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Hughes wrote:Have any knowledgeable people categorised the subjunctive as a form of a negative?

ἄγωμεν = νῦν οὐκ ἄγομεν καὶ θέλω ἄγειν ἡμᾶς

Πᾶς γὰρ ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου σωθήσεται. = νῦν οὐκ ἐπικαλεῖται τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ.
Stephen, aaren't you really getting at the same aspect (element, feature -- nomenclature fails me ... ) to which "unreal" and the Latin term irrealis point? It seems to me that affirmation and negation are not to be confounded with actuality and potentiality/possibility. I've alwasys thought that the "moods" (a poor-seeming Anglicized form of Latin modi) characterized distinct stances toward reality/actuality on a scale what is fact (indicative), what is potential or wished (optative), what is willed (subjunctive), and what is demanded (imperative).

I suspect, however, that reflecting upon the adequacy of our grammatical nomenclature and the question as to whether or not it clearly indicates the linguistic entities to which it points is somewhat perilous. I'm not sure that I want to go there ...
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Stephen Hughes
Posts: 3323
Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: Subjunctive as an implicit negative

Post by Stephen Hughes »

I was thinking more of grammatical euphemism or something else implicit. And I was wondering how to paraphrase it..
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
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