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Jussive vs Optative - What's the difference?

jussive | optative |

As adjectives the difference between jussive and optative

is that jussive is inflected to indicate commands, permission or agreement with a request while optative is expressing a wish or a choice.

As nouns the difference between jussive and optative

is that jussive is the jussive mood, a verb inflection used to indicate a command, permission or agreement with a request; an instance of a verb so inflected while optative is a mood of verbs found in some languages (e.g. Old Prussian, Ancient Greek), used to express a wish. English has no inflexional optative mood, but it has modal verbs like "might" and "may" that express possibility.

jussive

English

Adjective

(-)
  • (grammar, of a verb) Inflected to indicate commands, permission or agreement with a request.
  • Synonyms

    * (in Arabic grammar) apocopate

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (grammar, uncountable, and, countable) The jussive mood, a verb inflection used to indicate a command, permission or agreement with a request; an instance of a verb so inflected.
  • * 1990 , Bruce K. Waltke, Michael Patrick O?Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax , page 566,
  • For example, in the Aaronide blessing, only two of the six verbs are formally jussives , yet all have the same volitional sense.
  • * 2003 , Robert E. Longacre, Joseph: A Story of Divine Providence: A Text Theoretical and Textlinguistic Analysis of Genesis 37 and 39-48 , 2nd edition, footnote, page 121,
  • As far as the jussive' goes — ignoring the very few occurrences of this in first person — it can be noted that most of the second-person ' jussives are in negative commands.
  • * 2003 , Sharon Rose, The formation of Ethiopian Semitic internal reduplication'', Joseph Shimron (editor), ''Language Processing and Acquisition in Languages of Semitic, Root-Based, Morphology , page 90,
  • If, on the other hand, reference is made purely to the root, we would expect all frequentative jussives to appear with a front element, producing *m?t??t??s'' instead of ''m?t??t??s (19d).
  • * 2006 , Robert Ray Ellis, Learning to Read Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar , page 174,
  • The jussive and cohortative usually convey more indirect, or more subtle, expressions of volition than the imperative does.

    Usage notes

    The is similar to the cohortative mood, except that it also applies to verbs in the second and third person. Although the jussive mood is absent from English, it is present in Hebrew, Arabic, and Esperanto.

    optative

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Adjective

    (-)
  • expressing a wish or a choice.
  • (Fuller)
  • (grammar) related or pertaining to the optative mood.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (grammar) a mood of verbs found in some languages (e.g. Old Prussian, Ancient Greek), used to express a wish. English has no inflexional optative mood, but it has modal verbs like "might" and "may" that express possibility.
  • (grammar) a verb or expression in the optative mood.
  • Derived terms

    * optatively

    See also

    * subjunctive