RE: Cohortative Subjunctive and verbal aspect

Albert Collver, III (Collver@msn.com)
Fri, 14 Feb 97 18:50:30 UT

Hello,
You wrote, "I would appreciate comments and/or recommended articles on the
cohortative subjunctive. I particularly would like to know if anyone views
its usage as 'marked.' It would seem to fit the definition since it is a
relatively rare
verbal form."

I remember when I was learning Hebrew that I often mixed up what was called
"Cohortative" in Hebrew with the Greek hortatory subjunctive. It seemed to me
that the cohortative in Hebrew was very similar if not the same as the
hortatory subjunctive. Is this perhaps what you were thinking?

The subjunctive without AN tends to be used in three ways: hortatory,
prohibitive, and deliberative.
An example of a hortatory subjunctive (subjunctive in the first person and
present or aorist in tense) is iwmen -- translation "let us go."

At any rate, the hortatory subjunctive is the only thing that I can think of
that is similar to the "cohortative."

Sincerely,
Al Collver
See Calendar Explorer at:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Collver_Home_Page/calendar.htm