Temporal clauses with the present indicative negated by μή in Ancient Greek

The article discusses the meaning of temporal clauses which contain a verb in the indicative with present reference, and specifically the negative forms of these clauses. The aim is to investigate whether and how the use of the negative μή in such clauses changes their meaning when compared to the formally identical clauses negated by οὐ. On the basis of a contextual analysis of several sentences found in classical Greek literature, regularly in non-narrative text, the article argues that, when using the negative word μή in a temporal clause with present indicative, the speaker indicates that he is not fully committed to the claim. However, when the verb in such a clause is negated by οὐ, the speaker treats the claim as an established fact. Thus, the choice of negative reflects different modal statuses of the respective utterances.