Re: Little Greek Cheat Sheet: Conditionals
Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Fri, 25 Oct 1996 08:32:01 -0400
At 7:32 AM -0500 10/25/96, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>This is my preliminary attempt to make a cheat sheet for conditionals. It
>has two parts: the first part attempts to give a heuristic outline for
>identifying the meaning of a conditional, the second part describes each of
>the conditionals.
>
>I think this cheat sheet needs help in three ways: (1) somebody who is
>better at Greek than I am should make sure it is accurate. (2) I would like
>to get away from the "first class" naming convention. I think I have pretty
>good names for the other classes, but I don't have one for first class yet.
>(3) I would like to make the list of "other names" more complete, since I
>often find it confusing when people here use different names than the ones I
>am used to.
>
>Corrections are welcome -- please send them directly to me via email. I will
>post a corrected version here with acknowledgements to those people who helped.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Jonathan
>
>=====================================
>The Little Greek Cheat Sheet: Conditionals
>
>"if" clause:
> indicative "if" clause:
> "then" clause: AN + indicative -> second class (contrary-to-fact)
> aorist "if" clause:
> "If X had been...then Y would be"
-->rather: "...then Y would have been/would have Z'ed"
> (past condition contrary-to-fact)
> imperfect "if" clause":
> "If X were...then Y would be"
> (present condition contrary-to-fact)
> "then" clause not AN + indicative -> first class
> "if we can assume X, then Y"
> subjunctive "if" clause:
> "then" clause present indicative -> fifth class (present general)
> "if X, then Y"
--> This is insufficiently clear; for present general you want, "If ever/whenever/whoever ... Z's, then Y A's"
> "then" clause any tense, any mood (including present indicative!)
--> But if your "if"clause is subjunctive (+ AN), then the "then" clause pretty much MUST be either present (present general) or future (future more vivid/probable).
> aorist "if" clause:
> "If X had been...then Y would be"
> (past condition contrary-to-fact)
> imperfect "if" clause:
> "If X were...then Y would be"
> (present condition contrary-to-fact)
> optative "if" clause:
> fourth class (future less vivid, future less probable)
> "if X were to occur (which is unlikely), then Y would occur"
>
I can see this is becoming too complicated and confusing. I don't know that my sheet is any clearer, but let me send it to you
EXERCISE ABORTED!
BACK SOON (-er or later tonight) with my handout, converted to ASCII format.
ciao, c