| | Posted on Fri Apr 06, 2018 16:42:36 | |
| | Dear M. van Wevelingen,
I have for you the explanation of your doubts expressed in footnote 2. Tetigere (35) is a shortened version of the 3rd plural perfect tetigerunt, probably used to fit the metre. Ferar (6 and ferat (79) are both subjunctive forms of ferre. Ferat is the 3rd sing subj pres act, which is used to form a final subclause in combination with ut(i). Ferar is the 1st sing subj pres pass and is used in a main clause. This use of the subjunctive also explains your misconception in note 6, namely that future tenses express finality, like in Greek (which I assume you derive from ero (69), colam (7 and agam (71). Even though future tenses in a question do express doubt, they don't express finality. The final expression is more clear when these verbs (with the exception of ero) are seen as subjunctive forms. Subjunctives in interrogative main clauses are called dubitative, and express a final doubt ("what must I do?"). So it makes more sense to see colam and agam as subjunctive (even though morphologically they can be future tenses), because ferar is a subjunctive as well. Ero forms an exception because there is no subjunctive for 'esse', here the future tense is used as a substitute.
Hope this helps | |
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