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The ‘potential’ optative in Homeric Greek1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

Jo Willmott
Jo Willmott
Affiliation:
Queens' College, Cambridge
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Abstract

When translating the ‘potential’ Homeric Greek optative into English, ‘could’ is often the best modal verb to use, to be preferred to the more usual ‘would’. I will argue that, in some cases, this reveals that the optative expresses what is termed in the literature ‘dynamic’ modality. Examining several examples in more detail I will claim that the optative expresses a wide range of meanings, the differences between which are subtle and not always clear-cut.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Cambridge Classical Journal , Volume 54 , 2008 , pp. 237 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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