Chapter 38

RULE 1: Relative clauses with subjunctive verbs show characteristic or purpose.

RULE 2: Subordinate clauses in indirect statement may take subjunctive verbs.

RULE 3: The dative case shows reference.

RULE 4: The dative of purpose + the dative of reference = the double dative.

I. Grammar

A. Relative Clauses of Characteristic

The relative clause of characteristic is an extension of the “uncertain” subjunctive and a “potential” subjunctive in origin, e.g. “Here is a poem which you will/may praise”. In effect, the subjunctive “generalizes” a relative clause which no longer refers to a specific but an indefinite antecedent or describes the character rather than the actions of the antecedent:

INDICATIVE: These are the men who did it (the very ones who did it);
SUBJUNCTIVE: These are men who would do it (they didn’t actually do it, but they could have).

INDICATIVE: He is the man who did it (and he actually did it);
SUBJUNCTIVE: He is the sort of man who would do it (but he might not have done it).

You might try the following approach. Put a sentence with a regular (indicative) relative clause on the board, and ask students to translate it. Then, change the verb to the subjunctive and challenge students to adapt the meaning. Having seen the subjunctive in other clauses expressing possibility and uncertainty, some may deduce that a subjunctive in a relative clause adds a sense of uncertainty. By taking students through this logical process, you lead them to the essence of the construction and make their first impression the basic idea behind the mood change. For the time being you need go no further.

B. Two Other Subjunctive Constructions

***** Students are required to learn the constructions below (the Relative Clause of Purpose and Subjunctive Clauses in Indirect Discourse) and will see them on tests. *****

There are two other important subjunctive constructions with which students should be familiar.

1. Relative Clauses of Purpose

Probably in origin an outgrowth of the relative clause of characteristic, the simple substitution of qui, quae, quod for ut in purpose clauses results in the relative clause of purpose. For this to occur, the subject of the purpose clause must be cited somehow in the main sentence, allowing the relative pronoun to link the dependent clause to the main sentence, e.g. Milites miserunt qui dicerent . . ., “They sent the soldiers to say . . .” (literally, “They sent the soldiers who would say . . .”). If the purpose clause contains a comparative adjective or adverb, quo is used: Scutum deiecit quo celerius fugeret, “He threw away his shield in order to flee more quickly.” Note that relative clauses of purpose are often associated with verbs of motion and that the rules for sequence of tenses apply.

Since Wheelock does not introduce this construction, even in the Supplementary Syntax—however, see “Roman Witticisms Cited by Cicero” page 203, note15—here are some examples of relative clauses of purpose:

Milites misit qui hostes interficerent. “He sent the soldiers to kill the enemy.”
Haec habui quae de senectute dicerem. “I have these things to say about old age.”
Dignus est qui imperet. “He is worthy to command.”

2. Subjunctive Clauses in Indirect Discourse (see Wheelock, page 378)

The subjunctive is often seen in clauses embedded in indirect discourse (Indirect Statement, Indirect Question, Indirect Command). This has less to do with the sense of uncertainty which originally defined the subjunctive than with the ancient Romans’ habitual use of the mood in various types of subordinate clause. That is, by the Classical Age the Latin subjunctive had begun to lose its association with specific functions (prohibition, volition, potentiality, etc.)—the job of relating the particular connotation of a clause had devolved on specific adverbs like cum, dum, ut, etc.—and this mood ended up serving as little more than a way signalling that a clause is dependent. In other words, the subjunctive had become the mood of “general subordination.”

B. The Dative Case (see Wheelock, page 375)

1. The Dative of Reference

At its core, the dative shows “reference”; that is, it implicates a person or thing in the action of the sentence or puts it in a certain perspective. All datives originate from this sense with certain lexical groups taking on connotations which extend beyond simple reference: beneficiaries or losers (dative of advantage or disadvantage), possessors (dative of possession), viewers (dative of judgment: “he is good in her eyes”), and listeners (ethical dative: tibi = “How do you like that?”).

2. The Dative of Purpose and the Dative of Reference (The Double Dative)

***** Students are required to learn these constructions (the Datives of Purpose and Reference, and the Double Dative) and will see them on tests. *****

The earliest attested uses of the dative of purpose indicate that it arose from abstract nouns in the dative: “he gave money for a dowry,” “he came for helping.” When this was combined with a dative of reference (more specifically, a personal dative of advantage), the familiar “double dative” came into being: “he gave money for a dowry to him”, “he came for bringing help to them”, and eventually “he was for a help to them” (i.e. “he was (as) a help to them”). This construction is seen most often with esse and verbs of motion (“he came as a help [purpose] to me [reference]”).

Go through Wheelock’s examples of the Dative of Purpose on page 375. Note to students that the dative of reference is most often a person and the dative of purpose a thing or abstract noun and call to their attention that Latin uses the dative (of purpose) where English uses a predicate (nominative).

II. Vocabulary

  • consul: A political term, this word designates one of two annually elected magistrates. The consulship was the most powerful executive office in Rome. [Cosol and cosul are also attested in early Latin. The loss of -ns was common in Latin, cf. cesor < censor, toties < totiens. Later -n- was restored in spelling, though not in pronunciation, and mistakenly added to some words which did not originally have -n-: formonsus, thensaurus (< Greek thesauros).]
  • odium: This noun is derived from odî (“I hate”), a defective verb with a reduplicated perfect seen in the long vowel of the verb base (as compared with the short vowel in the noun).
  • opus: This noun is often seen in the idiom opus est, “it is necessary,” literally “there is work (to be done in regard to . . .).” It may take (1) the dative case + infinitive (“for him to do something”), or (2) ut + subjunctive (“that he do something”). Opus is related to *ops (opes); see Chapter 33.
  • consumo: Students should memorize sumo, sumere, sumpsi, sumptum (“take”) and learn that the compound con- adds the sense “completely, wholly.” Thus, con/sumo = “devour, use up”; see ostendo, Chapter 23. The -p- was inserted for ease of pronunciation, cf. emptus, exemplum < *exem-lom (from eximere “take out”), English Thompson, Greek andros < *anros, vulgate Latin essere > Old French estre > être.
  • defendo: Note that there is no difference between the present and perfect bases of this verb. Thus, defendit/defendimus can be interpreted as present- or past-tense.
  • dubito: If followed by a direct object, this verb means “doubt”; with an infinitive, it means “hesitate (to . . .).” Originally a frequentitive (dub- + frequentitive suffix -ito), dubito is built upon the base dub- (“[torn] in two ways”) which is linguistically related to duo. This verb is the first which students have encountered since cogito (Chapter 1) in the large family of “frequentitives,” verbs which originally showed repetitive or habitual action, cf. exagito (“keep on the move”), essito (“be accustomed to eating”), loquitor (“chatter”). For the most part, frequentitives belong to first conjugation and, allowing for some deponents, are almost without exception regular, which should aid students in memorizing these common forms. The popularity of frequentitives in vulgar Latin led to their eventual displacement of simple verbs because, as Palmer says (169), “colloquial language is characterized, of course, by its preference for colourful and drastic expressions which with the change of generations lose their force and emphasis. A child who first and constantly hears ‘mug’ (for ‘face’?) will in all innocence use it as the normal expression.” The large number of frequentitives in common speech during the period of late Latin naturally led to the incorporation of many such forms in the Romance languages; cf. Latin cantare > French chanter, Latin jactare > French jeter.
  • metuo: Like timeo with which it shares meaning, this verb has no passive participle. Students should be aware that metuo is often followed by a clause of fearing.
  • fatum: This noun originated as the neuter substantive of the perfect passive participle of for, fari, fatum (“speak”); it means literally “the thing having been said,” i.e. “what has been pronounced as one’s destiny (i.e. by the gods), one’s sentence or doom.”
  • pes: The base is ped- which is cognate by Grimm’s Law to English foot as well as fetlock and fetter (with e-grade as in Latin).

III. Sentences

Practice and Review

  1. Indirect command
  2. Temporal participle, “After having set out . . . ”
  3. Indirect command
  4. Relative clause of characteristic
  5. Indirect command
  6. Ut (+ indicative) = “as”
  7. Relative clause of characteristic inside indirect command
  8. Relative clause of characteristic
  9. Result clause; civitati = dative of reference, “in helping the state”
  10. “By having said these things, . . . ”, or “After he had said these things, . . . ”