Optative Mood
Definition:
Optative mood is a volitive mood that signals wishing or hoping.
Examples:
(Classical Greek)
Here is an example of optative mood (diacritical markings are not reproduced here):
ei gar genoime:n teknon anti sou nekros
oh that become.1SINGULAR.AORIST.OPTATIVE son instead-of thou corpse
‘O that I might be a corpse, my child, instead of you!’
(Euripides, Hypolytus 1410 cited by Palmer 1986 117 )
See Also:
Source:
168
54, 154–155
166
828
116–118
This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library. Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003.