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 )
Sources 8
- Chung and Timberlake 1985, 247
- Nida 1949, 168
- Pei and Gaynor 1954, 54, 154–155
- Bybee 1985, 166
- Mish 1991, 828
- Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985, 839
- Palmer 1986, 116–118
- Crystal 1985, 90