mwh wrote:It’s misleading of grammars to say that (ἆρ’) οὐ and (ἆρα) μὴ expect the answers Yes and No respectively.
Wow... Am trying to rethink... What if we replace "expect" with "express a
hope for..."? Would this be correct? Your examples:
mwh wrote:“Didn’t you speak to her?” (Surely you did) = ἆρ’ οὐ …;
mwh wrote:ἆρα μὴ …; = “You didn’t speak to her did you?” (as if incredulous or horrified at the idea) ~
“You don’t mean to tell me you spoke to her?” (Please tell me you didn’t) ~
“I trust you didn’t speak to her?” (but I’m fearful that you did).
seem to suggest precisely this. But it might well be that my English is failing me. In which case I would be grateful should you be willing to indicate what I have missed in the semantics of these examples.
The most difficult part for me is that I fail to see any difference in meaning between the following two:
1. οὐ δήπου
mwh wrote:“You surely don’t imagine that I …?” (No of course you don’t)
2. μή
mwh wrote:“You don’t mean to tell me you imagine that I …?” (How could you?)
Both express a hope for a negative answer, don't they? Hence my hypothetical equation in the subject line of this posting. What am I missing?