goldendawn
ὄσον ζῆς...
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2004
- Messages
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- HSC
- 2004
It seems like I'm the only one who really posts in this thread, and if you think that's a little sad, well - just remember, I'm very enthusiastic about what I do, 
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Infinitessimal Infinitives!!
Ok, so all you Ancient Greek students out there will have probably just learnt about forming infinitives, if you're working from the (typographically annoying) Reading Greek grammar and text. This may look familiar:
θελω γράφειν - 'I want to write'.
In Ancient Greek, the verb inflects to express tense, mood and aspect. By contrast, English uses so-called periphrastic constructions. For example, English uses the preposition to for the infinitive (ex.'to be, or not to be'), and also uses auxillary verbs to express future tense, and the perfective aspect ('I will go', 'I have been'). Modern Greek has come to use similar periphrastic constructions to express the subjunctive and infinitive moods, the perfective aspect, and also to express future tense.
For all those interested (which is probably only me, hehe), I would like to outline the historical development of the mood indicator να from ancient to modern Greek.
Marking infinitives in Ancient Greek simply involves adding a suffix to the root of the word. Ex.
θελω 'I want', and γράφω 'I write', become:
θελω γράφειν, 'I want to write'.
By the Koine period, speakers were beginning to drop the final consonant off the infinitive suffix, causing ambiguity. If γράφειν becomes γράφει, then it becomes homonymous with the third person singular conjugation of the verb, meaning 'he/she/it writes'. To avoid this ambiguity, the word ἴνα, meaning 'so that', came to be placed between verbs to express something like an infinitive. Ex.
θελω ἴνα γράφω, 'I want so that I write'.
During the Medieval period, the first vowel was dropped and the word να became an instant infinitiser (actually, it's a subjunctive marker pretending to be infinitive, but close enough)!
Therefore, θελω να γράφω and θελω γράφειν mean exactly the same thing!
Interestingly, the modern Balkan languages use a highly similar mood marker, possible deriving from contact with Medieval Greek - it is equally possible that the feature in Greek was enhanced by contact with the Balkan languages. Ex.
Albanian uses të, Romanian uses să and Serbian and Macedonian use da in almost exactly the same way as the Greek να.
'I want to write' in several Balkan languages:
Albanian: Dua të shkruaj
Romanian: Vreau să scriu
Serbian: Želim da pišem
Greek: θελω να γράφω
.Infinitessimal Infinitives!!
Ok, so all you Ancient Greek students out there will have probably just learnt about forming infinitives, if you're working from the (typographically annoying) Reading Greek grammar and text. This may look familiar:
θελω γράφειν - 'I want to write'.
In Ancient Greek, the verb inflects to express tense, mood and aspect. By contrast, English uses so-called periphrastic constructions. For example, English uses the preposition to for the infinitive (ex.'to be, or not to be'), and also uses auxillary verbs to express future tense, and the perfective aspect ('I will go', 'I have been'). Modern Greek has come to use similar periphrastic constructions to express the subjunctive and infinitive moods, the perfective aspect, and also to express future tense.
For all those interested (which is probably only me, hehe), I would like to outline the historical development of the mood indicator να from ancient to modern Greek.
Marking infinitives in Ancient Greek simply involves adding a suffix to the root of the word. Ex.
θελω 'I want', and γράφω 'I write', become:
θελω γράφειν, 'I want to write'.
By the Koine period, speakers were beginning to drop the final consonant off the infinitive suffix, causing ambiguity. If γράφειν becomes γράφει, then it becomes homonymous with the third person singular conjugation of the verb, meaning 'he/she/it writes'. To avoid this ambiguity, the word ἴνα, meaning 'so that', came to be placed between verbs to express something like an infinitive. Ex.
θελω ἴνα γράφω, 'I want so that I write'.
During the Medieval period, the first vowel was dropped and the word να became an instant infinitiser (actually, it's a subjunctive marker pretending to be infinitive, but close enough)
!Therefore, θελω να γράφω and θελω γράφειν mean exactly the same thing!
Interestingly, the modern Balkan languages use a highly similar mood marker, possible deriving from contact with Medieval Greek - it is equally possible that the feature in Greek was enhanced by contact with the Balkan languages. Ex.
Albanian uses të, Romanian uses să and Serbian and Macedonian use da in almost exactly the same way as the Greek να.
'I want to write' in several Balkan languages:
Albanian: Dua të shkruaj
Romanian: Vreau să scriu
Serbian: Želim da pišem
Greek: θελω να γράφω
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