[B-Greek] John 13:24 EIH
Jerker Karlsson
jerker.karlsson at kdu.se
Wed Apr 9 05:58:36 EDT 2003
<bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca> writes:
>In my Grammar there is only a very small section devoted to the optative
>mood. One of the things it does say is that it is the mood of "wish". I
>was trying to make sense of this verse by doing something like;
>"...whoever he might wish it to be..." This obviously was not very
>satisfying. So, is the optative kind of a more 'hesitant' subjunctive?
>Something like "who this possibly might be"? instead of "who this may
>be"?
>What do you mean by -potential optative-?
Potential optative is a term I've taken from Smyth's grammar (in my
opinion one of the best there is in english). This grammar is available
online at
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/text?lookup=smyth+1&vers=english
The paragraphs that might be of special value to you is 1821 and 1824. The
briefest explanation of potential optative is perhaps to call it the
optative of possibility i.e. it represents the English modifiers "may,
might,could". The optative taken as a hole is a form with manifold
functions, potentiality and "wish" is but two of them.
/Jerker Karlsson
Lund, Sweden
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