[B-Greek] "Modal" verbs

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sat Dec 6 11:02:59 EST 2008


On Dec 5, 2008, at 5:54 PM, Kenneth Litwak wrote:

>   When I studied German, I learned about modal verbs, such as  
> duerfen, muessen, wollen, etc.  These have English "equivalents."   
> For example, I can say "I am certain I would have gotten a tenure- 
> track position if I could have gotten a Harvard Ph.D."  Or, "I've  
> never been to Israel but I want to and I hope that one day I will."   
> Apart from DUNAMAI, however,  I don't know of any Greek verg that  
> does the job of German or English modal verbs.
>
>    Although Mounce says one can use "must" in translating a 2nd  
> peson imperative, I wuold disagree, which leaves me wondering if  
> there are any moods or other mechanisms for expressing things like  
> "would," "could," "like to," "may," "am permitted to" and so forth.  
> (Yes, I know the subjunctive can mean "may do something" but that is  
> different that a simple "may" as in "I may go to the movies this  
> weekend.") Now that I've taught the equivalent of the whole first  
> year of Greek, I've started wondering about this.  To some degree, I  
> think the optative can capture the idea of wishing, e.g., "I wish I  
> was teacing full-time" but not could/would/may/etc.  Any comments?   
> Thanks.

This is actually a grab-bag of questions that might be easier to  
answer for classical Attic than for Koine. Koine can use OFEILW  
(ὀφείλω) to express obligation ("I ought <to do x>" or "I should  
<do x>") but there are other verbs taking complementary infinitives as  
well; we recently mentioned in Jude 3 SPOUDHN POIEISQAI  
(σπουδὴν ποιεῖσθαι)  as "feel the urge" and ANAGKHN  
ECEIN (ἀνάγκην ἔχειν) as "feel compelled." Older Greek  
used and Koine sometimes uses the impersonals DEI, ANAGKH, PREPEI with  
infinitives and either a dative or accusative of the person for "There  
is obligation" or "There is compulsion" or "It is appropriate." The  
optative with AN is regular in a "potential" sense: TOUTO DH PRAXAIMI  
AN (τοῦτο δὴ πράξαιμι ἄν) for "I might do that."  
The imperfect with AN is regular in a counterfactual sense: TOUTO DH  
OUK EPRATTON AN (τοῦτο δὴ οὐκ ἔπραττον ἄν) for  
"I certainly wouldn't be doing that." These are some of the  
expressions might use, but this is by no means an exhaustive list.

You might do well to look at Louw & Nida, domain §71, "Mode"
Subdomains:
Outline of Subdomains
A Possible, Impossible (71.1–71.10)
B Probable, Improbable (71.11–71.13)
C Certain, Uncertain (71.14–71.20)
D Should, Ought (71.21–71.33)
E Necessary, Unnecessary (71.34–71.40)


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)





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