#subjunctives

Books are machines, comprised of many essential components. If one of those elements fail, the book won’t work the way the author envisions it. So, what are these parts? Prose, plot, transitions, pacing, theme, characterization, dialogue, and mechanics (grammar/punctuation). As an editor, I’ve seen every kind of mistake you can imagine and written many travesties myself. This tendency to not see…

Subjunctives: The Hamlet Paradox #amwriting

Writers often find the words and rules we use to describe existence convoluted and hard to understand. The subjunctive (in the English language) is used to form sentences that do not describe known objective facts. In other words, subjunctives describe unknown intangible possibilities. William Shakespeare said it best in his tragedy, Hamlet: “To be or not to be… that is the question.” Should he…

Post by: Diaphanus

Approved by: Varinia

After many verbs of hindering, preventing, forbidding, and refusing, a clause with a subjunctive verb is used. This clause is introduced by one of three conjunctions, depending on the situation:

Nē is used if the main clause is positive;

Quīn is used if the main clause is negative;

Quōminus can be used if the main clause is positive or negative.

Some of the commonest verbs in question are:

dēterrēre: to hinder, to deter;

impedīre: to hinder, to prevent;

interdīcere: to forbid;

obstāre: to hinder, to prevent, to oppose;

recūsāre: to refuse;

retinēre: to restrain.

These are examples of sentences using relevant verbs and these three conjunctions:

Plūra nē dīcam impedior, “I am prevented from saying more.”

Germānī retinērī nōn poterant quīn tēla conicerent. “The Germans could not be restrained from hurling their weapons.”

Per tē stetit quōminus vincerēmus. “You were the cause of our not winning the day.”

But the verbs vetāre (always) and prohibēre (often) have an accusative and infinitive clause instead of a subjunctive clause.

Caesar mīlitēs pedem referre vetuit. “Caesar forbade his soldiers to retreat.”

Mīlitēs Miltiadem suum cōnsilium cōnficere prohibuērunt. “The soldiers prevented Miltiades from carrying out his plan.”

The two last sentences can be rewritten using other verbs and the appropriate constructions:

Caesar mīlitibus interdīxit nē pedem referrent.

Mīlitēs Miltiadem impedīvērunt quōminus cōnsilium suum cōnficeret.

Clauses that introduce these conjunctions correspond to the English verbal noun in -ing with a preposition. Due to this correspondence, we may be misled into thinking that the English should be rendered into Latin with a preposition and a gerund. However, Ex dīcendō plūra impedior for “I am prevented from saying more,” for example, is very bad Latin, and really means “From speaking [i.e. as a consequence of speaking] many things, I am prevented.”

Sources

Bradley’s Arnold Latin Prose Composition, edited by J. F. Mountford;