optative

NOUN
  1. a mood (as in Greek or Sanskrit) that expresses a wish or hope; expressed in English by modal verbs
ADJECTIVE
  1. indicating an option or wish
  2. relating to a mood of verbs in some languages
    optative verb endings
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How To Use optative In A Sentence

  • From Rosenstock-Huessy's perspective, Heidegger's deployment of Being, as a gesture of defiance against the technicity into which the world has fallen, is precisely the same kind of optatively-governed gesture which characterizes the philosopher's freedom (an aesthetic/moral one). Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
  • However, when developing his general theory of speech acts, Austin abandoned the constative/performative distinction, the reason being that it is not so clear in what sense something is done e.g. by means of an optative utterance, expressing a wish, whereas nothing is done by means of an assertoric one. Him
  • First of all, the 1ps subjunctive is typically understood to simply be *(-o)-oh₂ (although Jasanoff convincingly argues for a purely "athematic"1 *-oh₂ in the earliest stage of PIE, contrasting with present indicative *-mi) and the 1ps optative is normally *-yeh₁m. Archive 2008-03-01
  • Thus the importance to it of the subjunctive or optative mood. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
  • Imperative (prejective), conjunctive or optative (subjective), preterite or perfect (trajective), neutral indicative (objective) are grammatical necessities arising out of times and spaces. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
  • optative verb endings
  • Even 'the college prizeman, and the college tutor cannot read a chorus in the Trilogy but what his mind instinctively wanders on optatives, choriambi, and that happy conjecture of Smelfungus in the antistrophe.' [ The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886
  • So presumably if *h₁i-yéh₁-n̥t 'they should go' is the optative of an objective verb like *h₁y-énti 'they go', then theoretically *ḱéi-ih₁-th₂e 'you should lie down' rather than later *ḱéi-ih₁-s would have originally been the optative of *ḱéi-th₂or 'you lie down'. Interesting quirks of a PIE subjective-objective model
  • He has fourteen moods; his _interrogative, optative, hortative, promissive, precautive, requisitive, enunciative_, &c. But as far as philosophical accuracy and the convenience and advantage of the learner are concerned, it is believed that no arrangement is preferable to the following. English Grammar in Familiar Lectures
  • The _optative_ is formed of the subjunctive, or of the two mixed-tenses of the indicative, by adding the desiderative particles _velem_, _uel_, or _chi_; as _eluli velem_! A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 05 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
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