Optative

In the palaeoslavic studies, it is known that the perfective aspect is used to render the Greek future and various forms of the conjunctive and optative, for the most part – in the aorist. On some occasions, though, Constantine of Preslav used more specific (vis. lexical) ways of rendering the Greek optative. The paper aims at systemising and commenting on the material excerpted from Constantine’s Didactic Gospel Greek sources. Such an approach, oriented towards the Greek as a starting point, might bring a better understanding of how these grammatical forms were perceived in the 9th century when they were no longer active in the spoken Greek language of the epoch. Furthermore, it will elaborate our understanding of Constantine of Preslav’s translation technique.

Subject: Scripta

Keywords: Optative Future tense Greek–Old Slavonic Translation Didactic Gospel Constantine of Preslav