What is optative mood?

Definition
	Optative mood is a volitive mood that signals wishing or hoping.

Example (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 )

Generic
	Optative mood is a kind of
	What is volitive modality?

Sources
	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

Context for this page:

Concept module: optative mood
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): O
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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