What happened to the third person imperative?

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ἑκηβόλος
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What happened to the third person imperative?

Post by ἑκηβόλος »

I have a few questions about the (especially) later history of the third person imperative:

Is the third person imperative inherited from PIE or an hellenic innovation?
Did the forms survive right through the Koine period?
What was it functionally replaced by? What are the earliest examples of functional replacements that we have?
τί δὲ ἀγαθὸν τῇ πομφόλυγι συνεστώσῃ ἢ κακὸν διαλυθείσῃ;

donhamiltontx
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Re: What happened to the third person imperative?

Post by donhamiltontx »

This is an interesting question it would be nice to have an answer to (though I don't have one :( ),

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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: What happened to the third person imperative?

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

I'll answer the second question: of course it did. Plenty of examples in the NT, e.g., ὃ οὖν ὁ θεὸς συνέζευξεν ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω, the colloquia (for the most part composed about 2 centuries after the NT), the papyri, and other Koine literature.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Cuncta mortalia incerta...

donhamiltontx
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Re: What happened to the third person imperative?

Post by donhamiltontx »

Thanks, Barry.

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opoudjis
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Re: What happened to the third person imperative?

Post by opoudjis »

ἑκηβόλος wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2019 2:19 am I have a few questions about the (especially) later history of the third person imperative:
What was it functionally replaced by? What are the earliest examples of functional replacements that we have?
I haven't got to that part of the Cambridge Grammar of Medieval and Early Modern Greek yet, but I don't need to: the 3rd person imperative was replaced by the subjunctive, introduced either by να < ἵνα, as is the default, or with the hortative ας < ἄφες. So:

ὃ οὖν ὁ θεὸς συνέζευξεν ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω

in Modern Greek is:

ό,τι λοιπόν ο Θεός ένωσε, να μη χωρίσει άνθρωπος (whatever then God united, a person should not separate)
ό,τι λοιπόν ο Θεός ένωσε, ας μη χωρίσει άνθρωπος (whatever then God united, let a person not separate)

Jean Putmans
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Re: What happened to the third person imperative?

Post by Jean Putmans »

You also asked for the origine:

"Is the third person imperative inherited from PIE or an hellenic innovation?"


In Meier-Brügger, Michael Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft 9. Auflage De Gruyter 2010 (=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id ... g=GBS.PA20)

I found:

"Uridg. ist ferner eine 3.Sg. wie them. *bher-e-tôd 'er soll tragen'.

(= Proto-Idg 3. Sg Imperative thematic *bher-e-tôd 'he has to bear/carry' = Greek φερετω).

So the 3.Pers.Imperative goes back to early Indogermanic.

Regards

Jean Putmans

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