Accentuation to show mood

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Nov 12 08:07:02 EST 2000


At 6:06 AM -0500 11/12/00, Jason A. Hare wrote:
>Carl,
>
>You wrote:
>> Yes, the subjunctive has the circumflex over the Eta because it is a
>> contraction of FOBHQE-H-TE --> FOBHQH=TE; the imperative has an acute over
>> the preceding Eta because there is no contraction and the final syllable is
>> short: it's simply FOBH/-QH-TE
>
>I was wondering why there is not a contraction in the aorist passive
>imperative.  The forms (on LUW) are:
>
>-----
>2sg > LU/QHTI
>3sg > LUQH/TW
>
>2pl > LU/QHTE
>3pl > LUQH/TWSAN
>-----
>
>Having looked this up, I have answered my own questions, but would like to
>report what I have found.  Mounce (_Morphology of Biblical Greek_, sec.
>36.8, p.82) says that the true personal endings for the active imperative
>are as follows:
>
>2sg > QI, -, E, S
>3sg > TW
>
>2pl > TE
>3pl > TWSAN
>
>The 2sg ending for the Aorist Passive Imperative is -QI, but the theta is
>deaspirated on account of the theta of the tense formative (QH).
>Therefore, the personal endings for this tense-mood combination are as
>follows, repectively: -TI, -TW, -TE, -TWSAN.  So, there indeed is no
>contraction.
>
>Aorist Passive Imperative:
>LU + QH + TI --> LU/QHTI
>LU + QH + TW --> LUQH/TW (accent pulled by final W)
>
>LU + QH + TE --> LU/QHTE
>LU + QH + TWSAN --> LUQH/TWSAN
>
>Also, I thought that QH was the formative for all normal aorist passive
>(excluding non-theta, etc.).  I have looked in Mounce and he says this for
>hint #2 on learning the subjunctive mood: "The connecting vowel is
>lengthened to H or W and behaves almost as a mood formative"
>(_Morphology_, sec. 50, p.128).  Still, all that I can find on the tense
>formative is QH (whereas, you put QE above), so I am assuming that the
>contraction in the subjunctive is QH + H --> QH.
>
>-----
>Aorist Passive Subjunctive
>LU + QH + W + - --> LUQW~
>LU + QH + H + EIS --> LUQHi~S
>LU + QH + H + EI --> LUQHi~
>
>LU + QH + W + OMEN --> LUQW~MEN
>LU + QH + H + ETE --> LUQH~TE
>LU + QH + W + OUSI(N) --> LUQW~SI(N)
>-----
>
>This is what I found when I went over the different breakdowns of these
>two tense-mood combos.  I hope that this is consistent and that I
>understand it correctly.

I think you've understood exactly what Mounce says about these matters. I
would, however, add my own nit-picking qualifiers:

(1) QH is not so much a distinctly PASSIVE formative element as it is a
formative element for the middle-passive in the aorist and future 'tenses.'
Moreover, the QH alternates with QE (the form appearing in the participles,
-QEIS, -QEISA, -QEN for original -QENTS,-QENTiA, -QENT), and I rather think
that it is the weaker form -QE- that is the formative element in the
subjunctive to which the long-vowel form of the thematic vowel, W or H is
added and with which it is contracted to form the aorist middle/passive.
(2) The last paradigm above is wrong insofar as you are showing the
indicative forms of those thematic endings in the 2nd-3rd sg. and 1st-3rd
pl. endings. In fact rather the long-vowel forms of the thematic vowel W/H
appear INSTEAD OF the short vowel forms O/E, and therefore I'd re-write
that last paradigm thus:

Aorist Middle/Passive Subjunctive
LU + QE + W --> LUQW=
LU = QE + H + IS --> LUQHiS (or better be explained as -EIS lengthend to -HiS)
LU + QE + H + I --> LUQHi (or better be explained as -EI lengthend to -Hi)
LU + QE + W + MEN --> LUQW=MEN
LU + QE + H + TE --> LUQH=TE
LU + QE + W + (NT)I --> LUQW=SI

-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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