Chapter III: Syntax

The chief innovations of syntax developed in Latin may now be briefly
noted.

33. _In nouns._

(i.) Latin restricted the various Cases to more sharply defined uses
than either Greek or Sanskrit; the free use of the internal accusative
in Greek (e.g. [Greek: habron bainein tuphlos ta ôta]) is strange to
Latin, save in poetical imitations of Greek; and so is the freedom of
the Sanskrit instrumental, which often covers meanings expressed in
Latin by _cum_, _ab_, _inter_.

(ii.) The syncretism of the so-called ablative case, which combines
the uses of (a) the true ablative which ended in -_d_ (O. Lat.
_praidad_); (b) the instrumental sociative (plural forms like
_dominis_, the ending being that of Sans. _çivais_); and (c) the
locative (_noct-e_, "at night"; _itiner-e_, "on the road," with the
ending of Greek [Greek: elpid-i]). The so-called absolute construction
is mainly derived from the second of these, since it is regularly
attached fairly closely to the subject of the clause in which it
stands, and when accompanied by a passive participle most commonly
denotes an action performed by that subject. But the other two sources
cannot be altogether excluded (_orto sole_, "starting from sunrise";
_campo patente_, "on, in sight of, the open plain").

34. _In verbs._

(i.) The rich development and fine discrimination of the uses of the
subjunctive mood, especially (a) in indirect questions (based on
direct deliberative questions and not fully developed by the time of
Plautus, who constantly writes such phrases as _dic quis es_ for the
Ciceronian _dic quis sis_); (b) after the relative of essential
definition (_non is sum qui negem_) and the circumstantial _cum_ ("at
such a time as that"). The two uses (a) and (b) with (c) the common
Purpose and Consequence-clauses spring from the "prospective" or
"anticipatory" meaning of the mood. (d) Observe further its use in
subordinate oblique clauses (_irascitur quod abierim_, "he is angry
because, _as he asserts_, I went away"). This and all the uses of the
mood in oratio obliqua are derived partly from (a) and (b) and partly
from the (e) Unreal Jussive of past time (_Non illi argentum redderem?
Non redderes_, "Ought I not to have returned the money to him?" "You
certainly ought not to have," or, more literally, "You were not to").

On this interesting chapter of Latin syntax see W. G. Hale's
"Cum-constructions" (_Cornell University Studies in Classical
Philology_, No. 1, 1887-1889), and _The Anticipatory Subjunctive_
(Chicago, 1894).

(ii.) The complex system of oratio obliqua with the sequence of tenses
(on the growth of the latter see Conway, _Livy II._, Appendix ii.,
Cambridge, 1901).

(iii.) The curious construction of the gerundive (_ad capiendam
urbem_), originally a present (and future?) passive participle, but
restricted in its use by being linked with the so-called gerund (see §
32, b). The use, but probably not the restriction, appears in Oscan
and Umbrian.

(iv.) The favourite use of the impersonal passive has already been
mentioned (§ 5, iv.).

35. The chief authorities for the study of Latin syntax are:
Brugmann's _Kurze vergl. Grammatik_, vol. ii. (see § 28); Landgraf's
_Historische lat. Syntax_ (vol. ii. of the joint _Hist. Gram._, see §
28); Hale and Buck's _Latin Grammar_ (see § 28); Draeger's
_Historische lat. Syntax_, 2 vols. (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1878-1881),
useful but not always trustworthy; the Latin sections in Delbrück's
_Vergleichende Syntax_, being the third volume of Brugmann's
_Grundriss_ (§ 28).