| As the Greek verbal system has become the subject of various dissertations and monographs, the future tense-form has been generally overlooked in the discussion. This dissertation seeks to overcome this lacuna by suggesting that the future tense-form functions as a rhetorical feature that expresses the author's expectation of an alternative state of affairs so that the hearer adjusts his or her thoughts, behaviors, or emotions in light of this expectation.;This definition is developed through three major steps. First, following a survey of the various construals of the future tense-form by both ancient and modern grammarians, a corpus-driven discourse analysis from a systemic-functional perspective is proposed. As a corpus-driven approach this methodology seeks to develop the definition of the discourse function of the future tense-form directly from its usage in the corpus. As a systemic-functional approach, the methodology recognizes the role of language to portray one's understanding of reality as a tool to affect other people.;Second, through analysis of each occurrence of the future tense-form in the corpus is categorized according to a functional taxonomy that recognizes the author's apparent purpose and that acknowledges generic differences in the formation of a text. This analysis suggests an appeal to an unrealized state of affairs. This description is developed through the application of probabilistic grammar to the various categories of the taxonomy.;Third, since Greek authors can utilize the future tense-form or various other constructions when referring to future-time, several other constructions---including verbs that indicate future inception through their semantic features, deictic markers, the aorist tense-form in the apodosis of future time-referring conditions, periphrastic constructions, and complementary infinitives with deltaokappaepsilonpi---are examined following the same methodology. Analysis of these results according to probabilistic grammar suggests that the future tense-form further is a rhetorical expression of the author's expectation of this unrealized state of affairs in order to affect the reader's thoughts, behaviors, or emotions. As a result, this dissertation contributes not only a possible definition of the discourse function of the future tense-form, but also an analysis of the proleptic aorist that contributes to greater clarity in its characterization and a confirmation of the usefulness of one proposed corpus for the study of Hellenistic Greek. |
