Download 3.3 Fear Clauses

Fear Clauses
Be afraid. Be very afraid
The Dreaded Fear
Clause
• Fear clauses are the last major
category of Latin subjunctive
subordinate clauses. They are also
notoriously topsy-turvy.
• A little attention to the way the Romans
thought about the logic of fear clauses
helps a great deal.
Construction
• Fear clauses, once again, are
introduced with ut/ne, like purpose
clauses and indirect commands.
• You would rarely mistake one for a
purpose clause or indirect command,
because the main verb is always some
variation on “to be afraid”.
English Examples
• These are the sentences that mean
something like English, “I’m worried that
my computer will time out before I finish
this test”, or “He was afraid that the
teacher wouldn’t get his email.”
Backwards
Conjunctions!
• The tricky thing about fear clauses is
that, from an English point of view, they
seem to use the “opposite” conjunction
from what would be logical. So you
introduce a positive fear clause with
ne, and a negative fear clause with ut.
The Method to the
Madness
• However, there is a way of thinking
about this that does actually make
sense. If you have a positive fear
clause, like Cicero timet Catilinam rem
publicam vertat (Cicero is afraid that
Catiline will overturn the government),
then the thing the subject is afraid
will happen is BAD.
• This works as a mnemonic.
Bad thing
that might happen=ne (prevention).
The Other Way
Round
• This makes sense of negative fear
clauses as well. If you have a sentence
like, Ovidius timet ut puella aegra
valescat (Ovid is afraid that his sick
girlfriend won’t get better), then your
subject is fearing that a GOOD thing
WON’T happen.
• Good thing=ut (desired result)
Summary
• So, if you’re afraid of something bad
happening (like the government
collapsing), you use ne. Like how it
means “prevention” in purpose clauses.
• If you’re afraid of something good not
happening (like your girlfriend getting
over a cold), you use ut. Like how it
means “what you want” in purpose
clauses.
Sequence of Tenses
• Fear clauses follow sequence of tense
rules like all other subjunctive
subordinate clauses.
• They can have the full range (you could
logically be afraid that something has
already happened that you just don’t
know about yet).
Honors Note
• You can sometimes also write a
negative fear clause with ne non rather
than ut. So,
Ovidius timet ne puella sua non videat
(Ovid is afraid he won’t see his
girlfriend.)
• Once again, in Latin this is logical.
Double negatives aren’t a grammar
error like in English. Two negatives
make a positive (like in multiplication.)