Download 3.2 Indirect Questions and Commands

Indirect
Questions/Commands
Tell me again why these aren’t just like indirect
statements???
What are they?
Indirect questions and indirect commands are
about what you would expect them to be, from
the names and what you know “indirect
speech” means.
An indirect question is a question embedded
inside a declarative sentence; an indirect
command is a direct order embedded in a
declarative sentence.
English Examples
Direct question: Catullus says to a girl, “Do you
love me?”
Indirect question: “Catullus asked a girl
whether she loved him.”
More English
Examples
Direct command: Caesar tells his soldiers,
“Form up ranks!”
Indirect command: “Caesar told his soldiers to
form up ranks.”
Uhh. . .
From these examples in English, it can be very
easy to think that these sentences should be
written in Latin with accusative-and-infinitive
construction.
However, they’re not. Both of these
constructions require a subjunctive subordinate
clause. Their construction closely resembles
purpose and result clauses.
Indirect Question
Formation
To create an indirect question in Latin, use the
question word that started the original direct
question as a conjunction, and then put the
whole thing into subjunctive, using the
sequence of tenses rules we just learned.
Latin Examples
Suppose you start with the question, “Ubi sunt
exploratores?” (Where are the scouts?) As an
indirect question, this can become:
Caesar rogat ubi exploratores sint. (Caesar
asks where the scouts are.)
Caesar rogavit ubi exploratores essent.
(Caesar asked where the scouts were.)
More Tense
Possibilities
Indirect questions can cover the whole range of sequence of tenses
without logical problems. So you could just as well write:
Caesar rogabit ubi exploratores sint. (Caesar will ask where the
scouts are.)
Caesar rogat ubi exploratores erint. (Caesar asks where the scouts
were.)
Caesar rogavit ubi exploratores fuissent. (Caesar asked where the
scouts had been.)
Yes/No Questions
What if there is no question word that you can
use as the conjunction to get into a indirect
question? This will happen with yes/no
questions.
In this case, use num as your conjunction. In
the context of an indirect question, num does
not have the negative, leading tone that it does
in a direct question.
Examples
Starting with “Exploratoresne insidias fugerunt?” (Did the scouts
escape the ambush?)
Caesar rogat num exploratores insidias fugierint. (Caesar asks
whether the scouts escaped the ambush.)
Caesar rogavit num exploratores insidias fugissent. (Caesar asked
whether the scouts [had] escaped the ambush.)
Indirect Commands
Indirect commands work much the same way,
except that you use ut/ne as the conjunction,
not a question word.
Yes, this is the exact same construction as for
purpose clauses. However, telling them apart in
context is almost always straightforward: in an
indirect command, the main verb will always have
a meaning relating to giving an order. Vocabulary
and grammar work together.
Examples
Once again, suppose that Caesar tells his army,
“Form up!” (Instruete!) As an indirect command,
you could write:
Militibus Caesar imperat ut instruant. (Caesar
orders the soldiers to form up.)
Militibus Caesar imperavit ut instruerent.
(Caesar ordered the soldiers to form up.)
NB: impero, one of the most common verbs for introducing indirect questions,
happens to take the dative. This isn’t a general rule for all indirect questions.
Negative Examples
Of course, you can also tell people not to do
something. Suppose Ovid tells his girlfriend,
“Don’t go to that party!” (Noli ad cenam istam
ire!)
Ovidius puellam imploravit ne ad cenam
istam iret.
Logic Strikes Again!
If you think about it, then you may realize that,
just like with purpose and result clauses, you
would realistically never see a perfect or
pluperfect subjunctive in an indirect command.
What is the point of telling people to have
already done something??
One Little Wrinkle
Just because this wasn’t confusing enough, there are a small number
of verbs that you would logically expect to take indirect commands
after them, but which actually DO take accusative-and-infinitive.
This most commonly happens with iubeo (to order) and veto (to forbid).
Since the result is fairly similar to the English equivalent (He tells him
to do blah-blah-blah. . .), this is not actually much of a barrier to fluent
Latin reading, and we’re not writing original Latin in this class.