39 - Optatives

Summary

The Turkic optative fulfills a wide range of functions developed along various diachronic paths. It is a modal category with volitional, deontic, and epistemic functions, maybe originally with a previsional meaning of predetermination ordained by a higher force, i.e. divine decree or fate. Common to all Turkic optatives are volitional notions of will, wish, desire, hope, expectation, aspiration, purpose, incitement, inducement, invocation, and promise. These notions have often led to deontic and epistemic notions of potentiality, prediction, obligation, necessity, and counterfactuality. The use of the optative to express deontic modality has given rise to senses of epistemic modality, a well-known typological path of development. Compare the use of the modern English auxiliary ‹may› both for strong wishes, e.g. ‹May X act›, and for deontic and epistemic possibility, e.g. ‹X may act›. The overall functions are similar to those of the old Indo-European optative, an irrealis modality expressing wish, possibility, necessity, etc. Some Turkic optatives have also been employed as conditionals.