The Variation of Classical Greek Wishes
A Functional Discourse Grammar and Common Ground approach
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9352135 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ezra la Roi (0000-0002-4542-0610, Ghent, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 96 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 213-245 |
| Publication date | 2020-04-14 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Glotta (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0017-1298 • E-ISSN: 2196-9043 |
| Publisher | Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.13109/glot.2020.96.1.213 |
| OpenAlex | W3016824669 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 27 |
This paper examines several unobserved variations of realizable Classical Greek wishes which radically change our conception of them. Using the layered approach to clause structure from Functional Discourse Grammar, I demonstrate that the wish optative has both a semantic and a pragmatic illocutionary value. Semantically, the wish optative, in Classical Greek, is non-subjective epistemic (instead of the previously proposed deontic) as witnessed by its contextual communicative value and its (infrequent) combinations with the subjective particles ἄρα and ἦ. Realizable wishes have their own specific illocutionary value and sincerity condition. They express the speaker’s psychological commitment to a realizable state of affairs for several contextual reasons. I argue that εἴθε and εἰ γάρ, which, contrary to common opinion, are highly infrequent with wish optatives, are contextually motivated illocutionary particles. The particles occur when the speaker’s current psychological commitment has not been sufficiently established in the interlocutor(s)’ Common Ground, which contains “the sum of [interlocutors’] mutual, common, or joint knowledge, beliefs, and suppositions” (Clark 1996: 96). The particle νυν combined with the wish optative, a combination which was overlooked in analyses of νυν, marks the Discourse Act of the wish illocution as consequential from the previous acts in the Common Ground
Physics · Variation (astronomy · Classical Antiquity Studies
Griechische Grammatik
Modality, Subjectivity, and Semantic Change
Using Language
Epistemic Modality, Language, and Conceptualization
Functional Discourse Grammar
Grounding in communication.
A Grammar of the Homeric Dialect
Conditions and Conditionals
Imperatives and Other Directive Expressions in Latin
Variation and Change in Ancient Greek Tense, Aspect and Modality
Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb
The Attic particle μήν
Interactional Particles and Narrative Voices in Apollonius and Homer
Zur Analyse von νῦν bei Homer
Two Studies in Attic Particle Usage
Common Ground
Mood and Modality
| Citations per year | 0.43 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2024 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |