THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTION AND TEXTUAL STATUS OF EURIPIDEAN οὔ που AND ἦ που

摘要

A description of the particle combination οὔ που, which in classical Greek could nintroduce questions or question-like statements, has to take into account several npuzzling facts. A TLG search reveals that, unlike similar-looking collocations such nas ἦ που, οὔ τί που and οὐ δήπου, οὔ που is confined to Euripides.n2n Even within nthis corpus, οὔ που is spread unevenly over the textual record: it is transmitted in na small number of papyrus texts,n3n but otherwise only in L’s text of the Alphabetical nplays. Moreover, in six of its eleven occurrences in L, οὔ που is corrected above nthe line to ἦ που by Triclinius;n4n and a seventh instance attested in L is quoted nby a 2ndn-c. A.D. authority with ἦ που, not οὔ που.n5