The Life Cycles of Counterfactual Modal Verbs in Ancient Greek: Temporal Reference Shift, Language Ecology, and Analogy

Abstract

Grammars of ancient Greek usually mention past modal verbs in the imperfect (e.g., ἔδει or ἐχρῆν) as an exception to general “rules” of tense, aspect, and temporal reference in ancient Greek. Though formally a past imperfect, they do not always refer to the real past, but also to, for example, the counterfactual past “he should have helped [but has not]” or present “you should be silent [but are not].” In this article, I provide one of the first comprehensive corpus studies of these modal verbs as a group (rather than a particular verb) and show how their synchronic variation actually reflects their diachronic developments in the counterfactual life cycle. I also explain how certain past modal verbs (viz. ἔδει and ἐχρῆν) develop post-counterfactual usages that refer to the non-past and why the modal particle is found with modal verbs as well as non-modal verbs.