[B-Greek] Re: third class conditions

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Nov 25 20:33:25 EST 2003


At 9:15 PM -0300 11/25/03, John Colby wrote:
>I will ask this question in better way.
>Third class conditional sentences have EAN with the subjunctive in the
>protasis. Is the subjunctive mood semantically important or is it merely a
>marker of a
>third class condition?

Well, you probably won't like this answer either, but the fact is that the
protasis of any condition with AN (EAN, hOS AN, hOTAN) normally takes a
subjunctive in Greek of the classical and NT eras; the indicative is
sometimes found but the subjunctive is standard. The subjunctive also
appears with hINA clauses which may express purpose but may be nothing more
than substantive clauses. The subjunctive as such really does NOT have any
semantic value in these clauses; I think the truth is that the introductory
EAN carries more of the weight of indicating the nature of the condition.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



More information about the B-Greek mailing list