Re: Moody Moods ...

At 3:22 pm -0500 18/3/01, John Cowan wrote:
>Andreas Johansson scripsit:
>
>> The trouble is that I don't know much of moods. I'm somewhat familiar with
>> the German conjunctive (and the few surviving or fossilized bits of the
>> Swedish conjunctive),
>
>Just to avoid confusion:  the German Konjunktiv is translated in English
>by "subjunctive", following the practice of the Romance languages.
Yep - and I have found books that lump the ancient Greek subjunctive &
optative together as the "conjunctive", but this usage is, I think, now
obsolete.

>It is mostly fossilized too, although the construction "I suggest that
>he do [not does] X" is still alive, at least in American English.
"If it be true....." , "If I were you..." are still occasionally heard
still in the UK, especially the latter.

>> but what about other moods? Can anybody give me a
>> description of common moods (name and usuage in different natlangs), or
>> alternatively point me to a webpage with a good description?
>
>We have of course the imperative, for commands.  In Latin that is all
>(indicative, subjunctive, imperative): in Classical Greek there is also
>the optative, for wishes.
A brief summary of ancient Greek uses:
INDICATIVE
- an assertions, whether absolute or reported
- a distinct statement of an object aimed at or feared (he takes care that
this _shall be done_; we fear that we _have missed_ both)
- a supposition that something is, was or will be true (if he is writing;
if he wrote etc)
- past tenses of the indicative also used in suppositions to imply that
they were not or are not true (ei egrapsa = if I had written; ei egraphon =
if I were writing [now]/ if I had been writing)
- past tenses also used in unreal wishes (ei gar touto epoie:sa - if only I
had done this!)

SUBJUNCTIVE
- in earliest Greek, expressed future (PIE had no future indicatives)
- in future interrogatives with idea of expediency or propriety (Where
shall we go?  What are we to do?
- in exhortation and in prohibitions (let's go! Don't do it!)
- future purpose or future object of concern (he is coming that he _may
see_ me himself; he takes care that this _shall be done_)
- future or general (not just strictly present) suppositions (whenever any
goes....; if anyone steals, he's always punished [1st verb subjunctive])

OPTATIVE
- as a main verb, it expresses wishes or potentiality for the future (we
may go [we're not sure]; may he do it well0
- future conditions implying uncertainty (if I should see him,....)
- it may replace the subjunctive in dependendent clauses expressing purpose
or object of exertion or fear, if the main verb is past;
- it may replace the indicative in all dependent clauses expressing
indirect or reported speech, if the main verb is past.

IMPERATIVE
- commands, exhortations, prohibitions.

In the later Koine, the optative more or less disappears except in set
phrases or expressions (and hypercorrections  :)

>Non I-E languages probably have others.
Trask (A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics) ends his section
on _mood_ with:
"Among the more widely attested mood categories are _declarative_,
_interrogative_, _imperative_, _jussive_, _subjunctive_, _conditional_,
_hortative_, _desiderative_, _dubitative_ and _necessitative_, though many
others occur in one language or another."

One of those other, of course, is _optative_ which, oddly, Trask omits from
his list.

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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