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Part of
Pragmatic Approaches to Latin and Ancient Greek
Edited by Camille Denizot and Olga Spevak
[Studies in Language Companion Series 190] 2017
► pp. 17–44

Chapter 2
Illocutionary force and modality

How to tackle the issue in Ancient Greek

| University Autónoma of Madrid

The first part of this chapter discusses the linguistic and non-linguistic tools available for studying illocutionary force and modality in Ancient Greek; the second part applies these findings to the study of the diachronic evolution of ó:phelon (ὤφελον) from a verb into an illocutionary particle. As I will try to prove, this diachronic evolution is driven by pragmatic principles and the different steps in this evolution have a formal reflection in the linguistic context (modal attraction of subordinate clauses, use of negations, word order and so on). The chapter follows the model of previous research that shows the usefulness of a pragmatic approach for explaining the linguistic data of so-called dead languages. This chapter adds a diachronic perspective.

Keywords: mood, modality, illocutionary force, sentence type, performatives, metadirectives, particles, discourse, subordination, diachrony
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Internal analysis of Greek data
    • 2.1Illocutionary and modality verbs
      • 2.1.1Performatives and metadirectives
        • a.Imperative sentences
        • b.Interrogatives
        • c.Declaratives
      • 2.1.2Verbs conveying modality
      • 2.1.3Verbal forms conflating illocutionary force and modality
      • 2.1.4Diachronic evolution: From verbs into particles
    • 2.2Particles
    • 2.3Discursive context
    • 2.4Subordinate mood selection
  • 3.Comparative and typological parallels
  • 4.Grammarians
  • 5.A case study: ó:phelon (ὤφελον)
    • 5.1Stages I–II: From lexical verb to modal verb
    • 5.2Stage III: Counterfactual assertions
    • 5.3Stage IV: From declarative to desiderative counterfactuals
    • 5.4Stage V: Development from verb into particle
    • 5.5Stage VI: Extension to non-counterfactual wishes
  • 6.Summary and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.190.02rev
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