The Oblique Optative, a Case of Narrative Tense

Richard Faure (1)

1 EDITTA - Édition, Interprétation, Traduction des Textes Anciens

It has been argued that the Future Optative (FO) is rare, but noone has shown yet why it is so. In this paper, I claim that rather than the FO, the contexts where the FO can appear are rare. What is crucial is that in these contexts the FO (a case of Oblique Optative) largely outnumbers its potential concurrent, the Future Indicative. Building on Amigues' 1977 remark that the past context is not a sufficient condition for the FO to show up, and that the absolute time must be somehow involved in the explanation, I propose that the main criterion must be Benveniste's 1966 distinction between discourse and narrative. In my view, the FO is a narrative tense. The Future Indicative is used as a stylistic marker much as the Historical Present is.

Mots clés: optatif oblique; futur; mode; temps; discours; récit; narration; grec ancien; oblique optative; future; mood; tense; discourse; narrative; ancient greek

Domaines: Etudes classiques; Linguistique

Richard Faure. The Oblique Optative, a Case of Narrative Tense: The example of the Future Optative. 8th International Meeting on Greek Linguistics “The Greek Verb: Morphology, Syntax, Semantics”, Oct 2009, Agrigento (Museo Archeologico), France. ⟨hal-00469847⟩