Zur Analyse von νῦν bei Homer

Abstract

Zusammenfassung In Homer, νῦν generally functions as an adverb referring to the present or the immediate future of the speaker. Apart from this use as a temporal adverb, νῦν has also developed a use as a discourse marker: it functions as a marker of discourse topic shift and as an adversative particle; besides these two values, νῦν also functions, as we will try to demonstrate, as an illustrative particle. The line between the use of νῦν as a temporal adverb or a discourse marker is blurred, as could be expected, but contexts in which the verb expresses past states of affairs totally exclude an interpretation of νῦν as a temporal adverb. This paper aims at determining the factors that have triggered the development of νῦν as a discourse marker. It will also describe the conditions that allow the use of νῦν in the description of states of affairs that took place in a distant past.