Subjunctive by attraction

Last updated

In Latin grammar, the subjunctive by attraction is the situation when the verb in a relative clause or a temporal clause that is closely dependent on a subjunctive verb becomes subjunctive itself. The name also applies to subjunctives used when a subordinate clause is "so closely connected with an infinitive as to form an integral part of" it. [1]

Contents

Examples of subjunctive by attraction

The following sentences are cited in grammars of a verb in a subordinate clause which is made subjunctive because the main verb is subjunctive. [2] In the first group, the affected verb is in a relative clause of a general type:

'who would love a man that he fears?'
'that which you buy, you could rightly call your own'
'no (miser) has ever yet been found for whom what he had was enough'
'whatever you have done to another, you should expect from a third person'

In the second group, the affected verb is in a generalised temporal clause ('whenever...') or conditional clause ('if ever...'):

'thus it used to happen that whenever he went out in public, he made everyone's eyes turn to him'
'spiders weave a web so that, if anything gets caught in it, they can finish it off'

In the following case, both verbs depend on an initial verb of fearing:

'but I am afraid in case, while I am trying to lessen the difficulty, I might end up by increasing it'

In another group cited by grammars, the subordinate clause with a subjunctive verb depends on an infinitive: [10]

'an orator must be capable of speaking about any general subject that is put before him'
'it is a sign of a lazy nature to be content with things which have been discovered by other people'
'it is a custom at Athens for those who have died in battles to be praised in the assembly'
'nor can goodness exist if it is not sought for its own sake'

However, the relative clauses in the first and second examples could also be seen as generic ('the sort of things which...'). [15]

A verb in a relative clause dependent on a subjunctive does not always become subjunctive. In the following examples, the underlined verbs are indicative, even though the writer is talking in general terms, not about a particular case: [16]

'the thing which you see has perished, you should consider lost for ever'
'it is brought about by an orator that those who hear are affected as he wishes'

The subjunctive is even less likely to be used when the relative clause is referring to a particular group of individuals:

'he sent cavalrymen to pursue those who had fled'

According to Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), the subjunctive by attraction has something in common with the subjunctive which is obligatory in dependent clauses in indirect speech, such as the following: [20]

'Cato used to say that he was surprised that one soothsayer didn't laugh whenever he saw another'
'the Greeks rightly teach that things which can't be accomplished shouldn't be attempted'

Accounting for the subjunctive by attraction

One authority, Hale, explains the usage as follows: [23]

In complex sentences made up of a main sentence with subjunctive verb and one or more subordinate sentences, the modal feeling in the speaker's mind which expresses itself in the main sentence is, in the nature of things, very likely to continue in the speaker's mind in the subordinated sentence or sentences, either quite unchanged or but slightly shaded. If, for example, I say in Latin, 'Let him send whom he will,' mittat quem velit, the mood in velit is not a case of 'attraction' or 'assimilation' at all. Velit is as much a jussive as mittat is. The meaning is, 'Let him choose his man and send that man.' Again, the frequent recurrence of such examples gives rise to the occasional use of a dependent subjunctive with only a formal likeness to the main subjunctive, and no true modal feeling.

Bennett (1910) contests this reasoning: [24]

I am unable to admit the soundness of this reasoning. To my mind Hale seems to do great violence to the interpretation of the passage above cited. ... I do not believe it legitimate to read into velit the jussive force which Hale attributes to it. Much less can I admit the justice of Frank's statement that Hale's interpretation of the mood of velit is beyond dispute. ... I am, therefore, inclined to believe that in the phenomenon under consideration we are to recognize a purely formal and mechanical attraction.

Conditions under which attraction takes place

Frank's study (1904) shows: [25]

  1. The attracted clause is preferably in the same time-sphere as the clause on which it depends.
  2. Its favorite position is between the introductory conjunction (when such exists) and the verb of the governing clause.
  3. Its verb rarely expresses precise modal and temporal force.
  4. The clause as a whole is rather of the generalizing than of the determinative type.
  5. It is more frequently a temporal than a relative clause.
  6. It is connected with the predicate more frequently than with the subject or object of the sentence.
  7. As a rule, it is an essential clause, and grammatically depends very closely upon the main body of the clause to which it is attracted.

These favoring conditions are met in only about 37% of all the clauses dependent upon subjunctives. When these favoring conditions do not exist, the dependent clause stands in the indicative, unless the clause would regularly stand in the subjunctive for some other reason (purpose, result, etc.).

Related Research Articles

In linguistics and grammar, conjugation has two basic meanings. One meaning is the creation of derived forms of a verb from basic forms, or principal parts.

English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts.

In language, a clause is a constituent or phrase that comprises a semantic predicand and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with or without any objects and other modifiers. However, the subject is sometimes unexpressed if it is easily deducible from the context, especially in null-subject language but also in other languages, including instances of the imperative mood in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latin grammar</span> Grammar of the Latin language

Latin is a heavily inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for number and case; pronouns and adjectives are inflected for number, case, and gender; and verbs are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, voice, and mood. The inflections are often changes in the ending of a word, but can be more complicated, especially with verbs.

A final clause in linguistics is a dependent adverbial clause expressing purpose. For this reason it is also referred to as a purposive clause or a clause of purpose.

A dependent clause, also known as a subordinate clause, subclause or embedded clause, is a certain type of clause that juxtaposes an independent clause within a complex sentence. For instance, in the sentence "I know Bette is a dolphin", the clause "Bette is a dolphin" occurs as the complement of the verb "know" rather than as a freestanding sentence. Subtypes of dependent clauses include content clauses, relative clauses, adverbial clauses, and clauses that complement an independent clause in the subjunctive mood.

The sequence of tenses is a set of grammatical rules of a particular language, governing the agreement between the tenses of verbs in related clauses or sentences.

In grammar, accusative and infinitive is the name for a syntactic construction first described in Latin and Greek, also found in various forms in other languages such as English and Dutch. In this construction, the subject of a subordinate clause is put in the accusative or objective case and the verb appears in the infinitive form.

Indirect speech, also known as reported speech, indirect discourse (US), or ōrātiō oblīqua, is the practice, common in all Latin historical writers, of reporting spoken or written words indirectly, using different grammatical forms. Passages of indirect speech can extend from a single phrase to an entire paragraph, and this style was generally preferred by Roman historians to the direct speech commonly found in Greek authors.

In Latin grammar, a verb of fearing is one that pertains to fear or concern. This set of verbs is grammatically notable because it inverts the sense of a following purposive clause, at least relative to the intuition of speakers of many non-Latin languages.

In linguistics, speech or indirect discourse is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content of another utterance without directly quoting it. For example, the English sentence Jill said she was coming is indirect discourse while Jill said "I'm coming" would be direct discourse. In fiction, the "utterance" might amount to an unvoiced thought that passes through a stream of consciousness, as reported by an omniscient narrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English clause syntax</span> Clauses in English grammar

This article describes the syntax of clauses in the English language, chiefly in Modern English. A clause is often said to be the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. But this semantic idea of a clause leaves out much of English clause syntax. For example, clauses can be questions, but questions are not propositions. A syntactic description of an English clause is that it is a subject and a verb. But this too fails, as a clause need not have a subject, as with the imperative, and, in many theories, an English clause may be verbless. The idea of what qualifies varies between theories and has changed over time.

Latin syntax is the part of Latin grammar that covers such matters as word order, the use of cases, tenses and moods, and the construction of simple and compound sentences, also known as periods.

The main Latin tenses can be divided into two groups: the present system, consisting of the present, future, and imperfect; and the perfect system, consisting of the perfect, future perfect, and pluperfect.

A temporal clause is an adverbial clause of time, that is to say, a clause which informs the reader about the time when the action of main verb of the sentence occurred. So in a sentence such as "after I had said this, he went out", the first clause is a temporal clause. The name comes from the Latin word tempus, genitive temporis, 'time".

Conditional clauses in Latin are clauses which start with the conjunction sī 'if' or the equivalent. The 'if'-clause in a conditional sentence is known as the protasis, and the consequence is called the apodosis.

From a semantic perspective, a tense is a temporal circumstance in which an event takes place relative to a given point in time. It is absolute (primary) if it relates the represented event to the time of the speech event and it is relative if it relates the represented event to the time of another event in the context of discourse. In turn, a relative tense may be “relative to absolute” (secondary) if it relates the represented event to the primary tense. Read more about possible tenses in the article on grammatical tense.

In Latin, there are different modes of indicating past, present and future processes. There is the basic mode of free clauses and there are multiple dependent modes found exclusively in dependent clauses. In particular, there is the 'infinitive' mode for reported satetements and the 'subjunctive' mode for reported questions.

This article covers free indications of frequency, probability, volition and obligation.

From a semantic perspective, a tense is a temporal circumstance in which an event takes place relative to a given point in time. It is absolute (primary) if it relates the represented event to the time of the speech event and it is relative if it relates the represented event to the time of another event in the context of discourse. In turn, a relative tense may be “relative to absolute” (secondary) if it relates the represented event to the primary tense. Read more about possible tenses in the article on grammatical tense.

References

  1. ↑ Bennett, Charles Edwin (1910-01-01). Syntax of Early Latin ... Allyn & Bacon.
  2. ↑ Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), pp. 403, 364; Harkness (1881), pp. 244-5; Bennett (1908), p. 212.
  3. ↑ Cicero, Lael. 15.53
  4. ↑ Martial, 2.20.2
  5. ↑ Cicero, Paradoxa Stoicōrum ad M. Brūtum 52.
  6. ↑ Quoted in Seneca, Ep. 94.43
  7. ↑ Nepos, Alc. 3.5
  8. ↑ Cicero, N.D. 2.48, cf. Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 381.
  9. ↑ Cicero, Lēg. 1.12
  10. ↑ Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 402; Harkness (1881), pp. 245; Bennett (1908), p. 212; Pinkster (1990), p. 210.
  11. ↑ Cicero, dē Ōrāt. 2.66.
  12. ↑ Quintilian, 10.2.4
  13. ↑ Cicero, Ōrāt. 44.151.
  14. ↑ Cicero, Off. 3.118
  15. ↑ Woodcock (1959), p. 114.
  16. ↑ Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 403.
  17. ↑ Catullus, 8.2
  18. ↑ Cicero, Br. 49.185
  19. ↑ Caesar, B.G. 5.11.9
  20. ↑ Gildersleeve & Lodge (1895), p. 314.
  21. ↑ Cicero, Div. 2.24.51
  22. ↑ Quintilian, 4.5.17
  23. ↑ Hale, Amer. Journ. Phil. viii, p. 54; quoted in Bennett (1910), p. 306.
  24. ↑ Bennett (1910), p. 306
  25. ↑ Frank (1904)

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.