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Subjunctive as an implicit negative
Posted: November 4th, 2013, 6:33 am
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.
Re: Subjunctive as an implicit negative
Posted: November 4th, 2013, 7:11 am
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 ...
Re: Subjunctive as an implicit negative
Posted: November 4th, 2013, 8:07 am
by Stephen Hughes
I was thinking more of grammatical euphemism or something else implicit. And I was wondering how to paraphrase it..