Sunday, June 03, 2018
Second Person Future Verbs as Commands
Aristophanes, Lysistrata 459-460 (tr. Jeffrey Henderson):
Likewise in English the following mean much the same:
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Tackle them! Hit them! Smash them!More literally:
Call them names, the nastier the better!
οὐχ ἕλξετ᾿, οὐ παιήσετ᾿, οὐκ ἀράξετε,
οὐ λοιδορήσετ᾿, οὐκ ἀναισχυντήσετε;
Won't you tackle them, won't you hit them, won't you smash them,William Watson Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1897), p. 19, § 70:
won't you call them names, won't you behave impudently?
The second person of the future may express a concession or permission; and it often expresses a command.See also Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, Part I (New York: American Book Company, 1900), pp. 116-117, §§ 269 ("Imperative Use of the Future") and 271 ("οὐ with Future Indicative in Questions as Imperative," citing the passage from Aristophanes).
Likewise in English the following mean much the same:
- Be quiet!
- Will you be quiet?
- Won't you be quiet?
